The Crucial Tech That Made Toyota’s Hybrid Revolution Possible These days, the Toyota Hybrid System doesn't get a lot of love. With our rapid move towards electrification, much more emphasis has been placed on full battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and to a lesser extent, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Hell, in America, you can get a tax credit on a number of BEVs and PHEVs, but not any conventional hybrids. Toyota's hybrid system is old news, though there's a case to be made for its future.
It's been a long time since 1993 and putting electric motors inside of an automobile transmission is an out-dated no brainer that hardly seems like "crucial tech" anymore. Its run its course and has no future because the sunset of fossil fuel engines that it's design is dependent on has begun. It's as clear as the fact that the world is now facing 20 major natural disasters a year, whereas in the entire decade of the 1980's there were only 30 major natural natural disasters (3 a year). The future of the world's economy is about to shift to being based on rebuilding from disasters and no one has done a single thing to stop the fossil fuel industry from increasing production so it's gonna get way, way, way, worse...
Having owned a Gen 1, Gen 3, and Prime, I have a long admiration for the Toyota transaxle. But sometimes called 'the victory disease,' Toyota went a different direction. The 'forbidden experiment' would have been to replace all of the ICE components and fill the space with batteries. Then use the Prime control laws for EV operation. A Prius BEV would have been a great start. Along with battery and transaxle simplifications, it could have given Tesla a chance to be honest competition at an affordable price. But they went another way. In one respect, it reminds me of BMW making the BW i3 BEV and REx and then walking away from what I still consider the best PHEV. It is good enough that I bought a second BMW i3-REx to complement my Tesla. Opportunity lost. Bob Wilson
Toyota is just getting started: How many know Toyota has built and is responsible for a Lunar Cruiser? That is not even the most exciting new technology they are working on 38th SPACE SYMPOSIUM (Information on Lunar Cruiser Development) (global.toyota) LUNAR CRUISER | Technology | Mobility | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website "Here are the key technologies for our development, many of which are based on the same technologies of production vehicles. ・Fuel Cell Compact stacks, using pure oxygen ・Autonomous Driving Self localization, Risk grid visualization ・Powertrain Control Independent control, Crawl Control ・Vehicle Dynamics Control Anti-rollover control"
Perhaps the OP can read, "The story behind the Prius" sticky above. Every bit of this history is already covered - right there. Enjoy! .
It all comes down to battery chemistry... Toyota painted themselves into a corner with the antiquated NiMH chemistry. Their entire business model was to corner the market on it, which they did fairly well, but NiMH is outdated and way too heavy, which makes it incompatible with EV development and Toyota didn't want to figure out how to transition to all the many Lithium options so they're now dead in the water as a company compared to all their competitors. So now they're trying to make impossible promises that fail... First it was Hydrogen fuel cells, then it was Solid State, both of them entirely unable to be a reliable power source in the near future.
Dropped off my hybrid at the small town dealer's today for routine service. While waiting for my wife to pick me up in her hybrid, I wandered the entire lot. Generally very very few new cars available. Only one new hybrid, a Rav4h SE. Two low content ICE Rav4s. Lots of trucks both new and used by comparison. Huge amount of used sedans, bulk in the area where they park those going to wholesalers.
How in the world are all the auto stealerships gonna survive if they aren't selling large numbers of new cars? It makes no sense?
gouging on the ones they do sell, and getting close to msrp on used. not to mention the scams going on in the service departments
Not knocking a SE, just commenting on the state of the supply of hybrids. Maybe influenced by them selling all '23s and waiting on '24s to be announced and delivered. Or is it too early for that?
