bok-usu

The Asahi Shinbun

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-...511160186.html

Toyota to put new hybrid-system engine into practical use in 2008
11/16/2005

The Asahi Shimbun


Toyota Motor Corp. in 2008 will put into practical use its third-generation hybrid-system (HS) engine, which will cut prices for eco-friendly vehicles, reduce fuel costs and slash production expenses, company sources said.

The smaller, third-generation HS can be installed on many models. Most of the automaker's midsize and larger models will be equipped with the new engine, they said.

Toyota plans to manufacture key parts of the new HS in the United States to expand the use of the technology around the world, they added.

Toyota's HS combines gasoline power and an electric motor. The system requires less fossil fuel and is thus more environmentally friendly than vehicles that run only on gas.

Toyota put its first-generation HS into practical use in 1997 with the Prius model.

The second-generation HS was put into practical use in 2003. It generated 1.5 times more electric power than its predecessor, and was the world's top HS in terms of fuel-cost efficiency at 35.5 kilometers per liter of gasoline.

The third-generation HS will be even more powerful, the sources said. The batteries will be lighter than the ones for the second-generation HS, but have a higher performance.

Toyota currently produces more than 300,000 second-generation HS engines a year. The automaker plans to double that output for the third-generation HS.

The increased production is expected to halve the difference in manufacturing costs needed for HS and gasoline engines. Currently, the difference in costs is several hundreds of thousands of yen.

The price tag for Toyota's HS-powered Harrier is about 850,000 yen higher than the Harrier powered only by a gasoline engine.

The reduced production costs for the third-generation HS will lead to lower sales prices of HS-powered cars, the sources said.(IHT/Asahi: November 16,2005)

mrjon

That's all well and good, but...

Will we be able to plug it in to the wall, out of the box?

I'd buy it right up if that were a feature.

z-lite

+1 Offtopic for you! Great news though for Toyota's future hybrid cars.

wibblywobbly

Toyota has some great PR.

R2D2

Good to hear Toyota.
We'd all love a daily driver that'll get 50MPG with a price tag under $25K.
Whats going on with the Hydromobiles (thats the question i want to know)? With all that infrastructure issues aside whats the 411 on its development/progress?

ecandlcubed

what? this is the beauty of hybrids. no need to plug in. remember the gm ev1 where it had to be plugged in at night? the range is like 50 miles per charge.

ScionEyes

toyota plans by 2010 to have a hybrid in every make/model line up!

TimmyT

I'm sorry but they are going the wrong direction. The technology for Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars is out there, and they are much more efficient than any electric/fossil fuel hybrid. The price of gasoline isn't going down and if toyota or any other company were truly concerned about emissions and the environment they would be pushing for that technology.

mrjon

See this: http://www.calcars.org/priusplus.html

Plugging it in would be an option, not a requirement. You can already modify the Prius to do this, but it voids the warranty. If Toyota incorporated these enhancements to the next generation hybrids, they would be better and more useful.

By using the plug-in charger to keep the batteries topped up overnight, you could drive around town each day without needing to burn any fuel. For longer trips, you'd automatically have the gas engine to move you forward just like the normal hybrids now. The batteries would also still charge by regen and engine use, but it would offer more options to the Prius owner -- and potentially much better gasoline fuel efficiency (by cheating!).

Toyota has been paying attention to what the CalCars group has been doing, according to some articles I read a while back. I just hope they decide to use some of the stuff they've been working on. As I said before, if they made plugging it in a factory option, I'd buy one immediately.

uberscionofglendale

well, i read somewhere, that the actual car (fuel cell) doesn't emit anything as far as harmful pollutants, but during the process of making the fuel cells, more harmful pollutants are released than a regular car would make driving with regular gasoline. and even if toyota came out with a fuel cell car now, the infrastructure is not there. just like the electric rav-4's they had, there is no infrastructure for the fuel, there aren't enough places to plug in. which made the car unattractive to the normal person.

as far as the cars powered by water, i don't think the U.S. would allow that.....what with our president being a big oil producer

R2D2

Thats the first time i've heard about processing hydrogen fuel...
U could be right about that process & u could be wrong, but if u compare every single pollutant on this planet than compare those numbers to hydrogen processing plants that hypothetically would be in play, i think fossils could still be causing greater global damage.
Hydrofuel infrastructure isn't there at this moment in time, but i highly doubt it wouldn't ever be around. In addition, I completely dissagree with ur thinking on the U.S. and hydrogen, infact our "president" acutally spent billions on this type of research.
Plain and simple, everybody knows this isn't "feasible" at this moment in time, but who said anything about "now"? Failure to think ahead is dooming yourself to the present.

peestandingup

No, uberscionofglendale is absolutely right. While its true that the actual hydrocars wont be producing pollutants, the processing of the hydrogen fuel will, and even more pollutants than our cars are producing now.

And as far as our oil ***** of a president goes, that $1.2 Billion he proposed will indeed be producing the hydrofuel the "dirty" way using up even more of the earths resources, the main one being OIL! Plus other fossil fuels like natural gas, etc. Read This!

Did you actually believe that Bush was gonna support something that would lessen our dependency on oil?? Take your blinders off. He is pure evil and pardon me, but screw whoever supports him.

Killa

yeah, that's part of the problem with the hydrogen fuel cell concept at present.... it's still MUCH more costly and just as polluting to make hydrogen as it is to make gasoline... hydrogen currently has to be extracted from hydrocarbons, such as natural gas, or propane or even during oil processing....
It's currently not productive enough to extract hydrogen from water, seeing as you need a sizable amount of electricity to do that.... therefore, still working against yourself.

I'm still pushing for developement of cold fusion technology.
And while most people think "Oh no! Fusion... nuclear explosion!!!"... but they need to learn to use google and read.

zeorai

Seeing as hydrogen isn't a near term solution hybrids are the way to go. I wonder what our mileage would be if we had a hybrid drive system in our Scions. I average 32-35 mpg, but 50+ would be killer. I think that should be pretty easy given how light the xA and xB are.

As far as investing in fuel cells, google toyota and fuel cell vehicles. Toyota and Honda have already deployed fuel cell vehicles in Tokyo. Also much of the tech Toyota patented on the hybrid system translates over in to the fuel cell drivetrain. I can't remember where I read that, it was either an article in Wired or Business Week.

Anyway, Toyota was very savvy in it's marketing and distribution. Go figure, they sent more Prius's to San Francisco than say...well, just about anywhere else, but you get the idea. They know where the consumers are for their particular product.

CatalepsicFox

Plugging it into the wall will actually still cost more than going to the pump. You need to rethink why you want to plug it into the wall... Unless your house is solar powered or nuclear powered then you are out of luck.

The Japanese are smart at this. That's why the American companys are so behind in the fast growing hybrid market.

peestandingup

Why isnt biodiesel being looked at more? Seems like a good idea to me. Its 100% renewable, grows from the earth, hardley polluts at all, & is available now in many places. Plus, the current infrastructure wouldnt have to change that much. Just stock the gas pumps with biodiesel, drop diesel engines in current models, boom you're done. No more crude oil.

PeckinOrder

its been proven before that Vegetable Fuel works...it is much cheaper as well as being organic and made every day as new life grows throughout the world. We should forget these extremely expensive electric cars, and forget the ever growing fuel prices and go right to Vegetable Oil. It works, just take a look at Willie Nelson Gas Stations, he only sells Vegetable Oil. With small modifications to the engine you can have them run on this, creating no pollutions and cheaper costs!

shorberg

toyota is working on fuel cells as well. there was a fuel cell at the tokyo motor show or whatever it was called and has been around for a while now.

Iptuous

there's a willie gas station in ft. worth here.
its BD20 i believe, which means that its made of 80% deisel and 20% biodeisel. (i think willie gas uses soy, but you can use just about anything) although you would think, "why not use just BD100?", the environmental benefit is achieved with far less. using just BD10-20 will allow the fuel to combust much more fully, giving the efficiency gains and environmental gains that we are looking for. many farmers in the midwest are now starting to use this fuel for thier farm equipment, and consider it to be a premium fuel, claiming better performance from thier machinery. and its slightly cheaper for them, since they buy it in bulk. the biggest problem that deisel has in the US is that crappy chrysler deisel that came out in late seventies or whatever that left a bad taste in the mouth of the public.

the reason i know any of this is because my friend manufactures his own biodeisel for his old mercedes deisel car.

Iptuous

oh, one more thing.
they don't put out "no pollutants" they just put out less.
their CO2 emmissions are much lower, but they do put out mor NOX which is bad.
the primary gain is economic. the environmental gain is just gravy