Toyota’s NEW hybrid technology is almost here. CAN’T WAIT!
This week I reviewed the fifth generation hybrid system in the Toyota Camry. It’s incredibly smooth when the engine turns on. Most times you don’t notice. It is very removed from the engine, meaning when you’re going uphill, which I don’t really have here in Florida, but under prolonged instances of acceleration, it’s quieter than most hybrids I’ve ever driven. And fuel efficiency always ranks at the top when we’re talking about a hybrid. More times than not, there are performance hybrids out there that give you about the same fuel economy as a gas car, but gives you a lot more performance. That’s true. But I’m talking about fuel efficient hybrids here and energy efficient hybrids. And Toyota has a next generation in the pipeline and we’re going to go over that technology today. If you guys are excited for upcoming Toyota technology, hit that like button, subscribe for more. They’re working on a lot. And when I say they, we’re talking about Aishan. Toyota’s number one or number two supplier up there with Denzo. And in fact, Toyota works with Aishan and Denzo to build e axles in a company called Blue Nexus. Obviously, here they are together been working on pushing the envelope with technology to improve fuel efficiency and energy efficiency on their electrified vehicles amongst other things. And in fact, they’re even providing e-axxles for Isuzu’s D-Max EV pickup. And of course, Suzuki’s Evitar, which is the same thing as a urban cruiser for Toyota. If you’re excited for Toyota’s tech and their improvements in the near future, make sure to smash that like button. Their nextg e- axle. So, they use e- axles in hybrids. Uh, for example, their hybrid max uses e- axles. Uh, and even their all-wheel drive hybrids use e- axles. And the e- axles are just for the rear motors in Toyota hybrids, but they also use them in the BZ model. um the electric bezy woodland, the CHR coming out uses e- axles as well, but they’re they’re going way further ahead with their packaging. Um they’re going to an 9 in1 E axle. This is the third gen EX and we should see technology like this in the upcoming LFZC fully electric vehicle for Lexus that is going to usher in solidstate batteries, new performance batteries, giga casting, softwaredefined vehicle as well as nextg E axles is going to be fantastic. Now they’re currently testing them in small cars like K cars. They are going to have multiple sizes of these things. Let me show you. So, here’s a third gen EAxle coming maybe around 2027. That’s that’s the most recent talks, but it could be delayed. We’ll see. The BZ uh sorry, the LFZC, the Lexus compact sedan, that’s kind of like an electric is that’s coming in 2027. Now, it was supposed to be 2026. It’s been delayed. Maybe it’s been delayed for a few reasons. Could be the software end. It could be lack of EV demand or a slowing down of EV demand. Maybe their batteries aren’t ready or maybe these e- axles weren’t quite ready. Okay, so you have small E- axles, which they were just testing in that uh Nissan Sakura. Uh you also have the medium E- axle, which you’ll see in most cars, at least in the Western market, and the large premium would be for performance cars or Lexus cars. Also, this slide was from a few years ago, and they did preview the third gen Eaxle, and they said it achieves half the volume um compared to the first generation E- Axle. And you can see how much little space they expect them to take, which allows you to have a bigger battery, better efficiency, better cargo, better occupant capacity as well. You’re able to reduce the height of the vehicle. And then they come out with this image in which they’re employing a nine in one. So if you look at what like BYD is doing, BYD has an eight in one. I think some manufacturers in China have a 10in one. All right. So they’re just packing all these different control modules inside of this E axle to reduce cost, improve efficiency. So, that’s exciting for the BEV front, as well as throwing an a very efficient E- axle for all-wheel drive and the rear of a hybrid. But now, we’re getting into what most of you are excited about, what I’m more excit I would say equally excited about, to be honest. All right. I’m I’m excited to see what these Eaxles are capable of, the really compact um and consolidated E- Axles that we have coming. But this is exciting. New two motor drive unit for HEV and PHVs. All right, which are hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. They’re saying that BEVs are slowly growing throughout the world. Depending on where you’re at, it’s it’s faster or slower, obviously, but the presence of more userfriendly hybrids and plug-in hybrids is growing rapidly, and that is absolutely true here in the United States. Both hybrids and PHVs are equipped with an engine and a motor, but their mechanisms differ depending on how they are used. There are a variety of different systems and hybrids in particular. Now Toyota has technically three different hybrid systems right now. They’re they have their their bread and butter which is the the split motor hybrid says the two motor hybrid system that I just drove in the Camry. You see in the Prius, see it in the Corolla. Okay. It’s in the RAV 4. It’s even in their plug-in hybrid models. Then Toyota also uses a six-speed auto for the performance hybrids uh called the Hybrid Max. A 2.4 four turbo made it to an electric motor, then a six-speed auto, and then they put an e- axle in the back to power the rear wheels. Okay, that’s something something like the Grand Highlander Hybrax, Lexus TX 500H, RX 500H. You have it in the crown. And then Toyota has their body on frame hybrids that are rear wheel drive bias, right? But what what Toyota and Aishan are working on right now is improving their two motor hybrid system. And Toyota’s two motor hybrid system is a combination of a series system where the engine runs as a generator to charge up the battery and then the the vehicle can be battery electric driven through an electric motor. Okay. So it has that functionality to it. Toyota’s split system. Its parallel system is also built into this series parallel system and it allows the engine to run and power the front wheels alongside of the drive motor. So we have this new graph here and their new hybrid will reduce energy consumption, electricity consumption by 2% fuel consumption lowers by 3%. So we have an increase of 5% I would say of overall efficiency. So if you’re looking at like a Camry 50 miles per gallon, you’re going to get two to three more miles per gallon out of it. Okay, that might seem small, but over time that absolutely adds up. And how are they doing this? Well, here’s the new this is what the new system looks like. Um, so Aishan has developed the series split system. They’ve been using this for a while, right? series split hybrid or you say series parallel hybrid, but they’re specifically calling it the split system now. And the split system, they’re getting energy losses because the two motor hybrid when it’s running on the drive motor, the generator motor is also being rotated, which is draining energy. This new series split system separates the drive motor from the generator motor to prevent rotation, similar to a series system. And this has improved electric efficiency when driving on motor alone. Anytime the gasoline engine is running on one of these split systems, I’m going to go on a limb and say it’s also turning that generator motor, the smaller motor. But when you’re running on electric alone, it can decouple that generator motor from the larger drive motor. So, you’re only powering one motor and it also makes it way more efficient. The author of this article also says they got a chance to drive it and they didn’t detect any strange sensations that could occur if the motor generator was disconnected uh or turned off, I guess you could say, while the drive motor was propelling the vehicle. There’s no noticeable differences. There was a slight change in sound. Yeah, I could see that. But a very smooth vehicle. Of course, it’s fully electric at that point. This system will contribute to improving fuel efficiency, not only in hybrids, but also in plug-in hybrids. Uh, and it makes more sense, especially in plug-in hybrids, to be more efficient because they’re going to be running obviously in EV mode a lot longer, uh, than a traditional hybrid up to 40, 50 miles, right? If you look at something like the RAV 4 plug-in hybrid, you can see them testing it in an RX right here. Now, Aishan’s also working on electric braking, not hydraulic bra. They’re talking about the benefits of moving away from hydraulic braking. You don’t have to have as much piping. You don’t have to rely on hydraulic fluid or anything like that. Um, and it’s just controlled by the ECU. Uh, and you might be thinking, well, you know, if someone hacks into your car, they can control the brakes. I mean they they it absolutely they could control everything in a software divine car if it’s hacked. All right. And the brakes would be one of those things in the future. However, it would in theory reduce cost having electric brakes. And think it’s it’s just electric actuated uh squeezing of the calipers to get the brake pads to create friction with the rotors. and they’re going to be working on step one in the 2030s in converting the rear wheels to electric brakes. So, they don’t have to send hydraulic uh lines all the way to the rear. Who knows, sometime after that, your front brakes will disconnect from hydraulic coupling and just be fully electric. No piping required. It’s all going to be braking by wire essentially in the future. And it’s not just to improve packaging and reduce cost here. It’s actually improving performance. They’re estimating a 7% reduction in braking distance compared to hydraulic brakes. That is pretty cool. They’re also working on making vehicles far more aerodynamic with active shutters and active aerodynamics. Okay, we already see grill shutters. Now they’re talking about move uh movable spats. So the you could have little motorized front air flaps essentially to cover the front tires to improve aerodynamics. We’re already seeing door handles flush, but they’re going to be committing more to that. Um, a side step that sucks into the body when you start moving. And adjustable spoiler. That’s crazy. And then you also have a diffuser on the back that is adjustable as well due to speed. You see the software works here on this little iPad. Now, this piece I’m not excited for whatsoever. Automatically predicting and slowing when approaching sharp corners. Toyota already does this. is called I already forget the name of it. I want to say it’s like Toyota proactive driving. It’s in Toyota Safety Sense 3.0. It will break for you. It will swerve the car for you. It’s awful. It’s really, really sketchy. And I know it will get better in the future, but at that point, I would just either let the car drive itself if it’s slowing and breaking and turning for me in in sharp corners, or I want full control of it. I don’t want it cutting into my control. And that’s why I take off that proactive driving on Toyotas as soon as I get into every single new Toyota or Lexus I drive. So, not excited about that. Um, and they’re talking about new door technology that doesn’t require rails on minivans. We see this technology going to be employed not on this RX here, but on the um the new Century SUV. They have doors that pop off the vehicle, then open up. They also showed this on the LFZL concept at the Japan Mobility Show for Lexus. So, don’t really care for that to be honest. It’s cool that they’re trying new stuff. But, uh, active aerodynamics is cool. Just I can imagine, you know, something breaking on it and then you’re you’re stuck in a less than ideal physical shape of the vehicle. If if the spoiler is not working, the diffuser is not working or the air flaps aren’t working, whatever it is. electric brakes. I’ll probably be around to see this sort of technology come into the market. Um, and then, you know, these hybrids are going to be coming before we know it. In fact, I think these hybrids are around the corner. We know these Z axles are these are coming in 2027 in different shapes and sizes, but this new hybrid system, I have a really good feeling that we could see it for the first time in uh potentially the new Corolla hybrid we’re hearing made it to the new 1.5 hybrid system, new.1 uh the 1.5 L 4-cylinder that’s newly developed. Also, the 2 L turbo four-cylinder that’s newly developed. I can see those linking straight into this new split hybrid system that has better efficiency. Uh, and that should be coming in the next two to three years, I would say. I’m very, very hyped for it. Very excited. And it will just, uh, make Toyota hybrids even that much better. 5% more efficient. And then the plug-in hybrids will be much more efficient as well and fully electric, which is pretty pretty darn exciting. Also, guys, in the comments, let me know if you enjoyed this today. I know it’s not focusing on a specific model, but it’s something to look forward to and it’s something we’re absolutely going to see in cars in the near future, especially the hybrid and the the XN1 sort of consolidation with the Eaxles. Have a great day in peace.
#TOYOTA #HYBRID #CAMRY #RAV4 #PRIUS #COROLLA
Toyota’s next-gen hybrid technology is right around the corner. We could see significant improvements in electric and gas efficiency!
sources:
https://www.aisin.com/en/aithink/innovation/blog/006338.html
https://www.aisin.com/en/aithink/innovation/blog/005822.html
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