2014 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid
Toyota's Prius hybrid might be a snore to drive, but it is wondrous from a technical point of view, and with each new generation of the car since its introduction in 1997, it has gotten more and more advanced. Now, the fourth-generation Prius is on its way, due out in 2015, and Automotive News was able to glean some insider details about Toyota's latest hybrid.
Speaking with Toyota executives, AN surmised that the development team tasked with the next Prius is aiming for some impressive efficiency goals. First, engineers are looking to achieve 40 percent thermal efficiency, a 1.5-percent jump over the current Prius. (Thermal efficiency refers to how efficiently the car converts the energy of its fuel into kinetic energy; regular gas-fed vehicles hover around 25 percent thermal efficiency.) Toyota's hoping part of this gain comes from the new hybrid powertrain it's developing. Lighter and more compact than the current Prius's Hybrid Synergy Drive, the new system also will work to achieve Toyota's stated goal of improving the Prius's fuel economy by 8 percent. Each new Prius has dramatically upped its EPA fuel-economy numbers compared to its predecessor's, but as hybrid tech matures, it's going to be harder and harder for manufacturers—Toyota included—to eke out more mpg.
- Instrumented Test: 2013 Toyota Prius V
- Instrumented Test: 2012 Toyota Prius C
- First Drive: 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In
That's not to say that all is lost for the fourth-gen Prius—the car will ride on the Toyota New Global Architecture, a modular platform that's up to 20 percent lighter than some of the architectures it will replace. Toyota also is looking to lithium-ion batteries to save some weight and packaging space, although a final decision has yet to be made. (The Prius still uses lower-tech nickel-metal hydride batteries, when most of the industry has moved toward the more advanced—and more expensive—lithium-type cells.) We'll have to wait and see what Toyota comes up with when the new Prius debuts next year, but we're looking forward to it.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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