Toyota to sell diesel hybrid in 2010
After hooking up with Isuzu a couple of weeks ago, Toyota is now going to start taking advantage of Isuzu's diesel expertise. For the first time Toyota is going to combine their Synergy hybrid drive system with diesel engines. A diesel hybrid system has the potential to provide the best of both worlds. Hybrid systems really only provide a lot of benefit in stop and go driving where the regular deceleration can be used for regenerative braking to charge the battery. The battery is then used to re-start the engine after a stop and also to drive the vehicle when there is low demand and adequate charge. In highway cruising the limited battery capacity is of little value. A diesel engine works best in exactly those conditions, so a diesel hybrid should be the best combination of an internal combustion engine hybrid. The plan is for Toyota to offer a subcompact diesel hybrid as soon as 2010.
[Source: JapanToday]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Peter Cooley 7:47PM (2/17/2009)
I can't wait for a Tacoma or Tacoma-style pick-up with a more fuel efficient engine. Be it diesel , diesel-hybrid , or whatever , that market has got to be huge. Now is the time !
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alex in wonderland 12:41AM (5/04/2009)
I would love to see a tacoma dieselhybrid. like about 2 years ago but anytime soon would be fine. the isuzu engine is a great idea. they have been building a dieselpickup for a while now. i have a colorado and it is a surprisingly good truck nice and tough and it is built by isuzu. you can get a diesel for it outside of the states but not here so a tacoma with that engine would be excellent.
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Doug 6:30PM (5/19/2009)
I fully agree with the three last commenters above. I was in the UK a couple of weeks ago, and you just didn't see anything EXCEPT diesel Tacoma-sized pickups (HiLux), and those made by Mitsubichi and others. Fast, quiet, but with mileage like an American gasoline-powered Corolla. To come back home to our national fleet of bloated gas guzzlers is so disheartening. I have an 86 4X4 Toyota I bought new, and a 1998 Tacoma I bought when 2 years old. I need a truck, but I don't need anything available as current production in the United States today. I won't buy a new pickup until it's a 4X4 diesel (or deisel hybrid) acheiving better than 30 mpg. I don't want to hear it can't be done when I've just come from a place with crowded highways where people are driving at highway speeds and acheiving great fuel economy in fast, quiet diesel cars and trucks that acheive impressive fuel economy.
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TaviivaT 12:36AM (5/23/2009)
Three years after the first post and Toyota finally comes out with a diesel hybrid ...forklift. What the heck!!
dhectorg 3:31PM (11/15/2009)
European and Japanese manufacturers are still concerned that Americans just won't buy diesels in large enough numbers to justify big investments in this market. After suffering such crappy sales over the last year or so, they are not going to bring diesels to the states just for mediocre sales. I hate to say it, but we diesel lovers are a minority. Most American buyers don't understand that new diesel technology is superior. They still think it's loud, slow, and dirty like in the 70s and 80s. We have to educate them. I live in Ohio where winters are brutal. I have always owned 4WD trucks, but as others here have said, I will not buy another truck that isn't a diesel or diesel hybrid with 4WD. I'm tired of the manufacturers slighting this market. I understand that diesel sales here will be relatively low, but they will certainly be profitable.
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Tim 9:17AM (11/20/2006)
Where's the plug? How far will it go on electric alone? Am I still addicted to Oil?
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Howard Lee Harkness 9:41AM (11/20/2006)
"A diesel hybrid system has the potential to provide the best of both worlds."
I'm wondering what is taking so long. The folks building the Aptera figured this out a while back, but they haven't delivered their 300+ mpg car yet.
Diesel can be very efficient at constant load and RPM, which is the main reason that OTR trucks use diesel. EV has good torque and efficiency over a wide range of RPM and load, but both torque and efficiency drop off at high RPM, and storage of enough electrical energy to give adequate range is a problem. The two technologies are about as close to the perfect complement as is available in the real world.
BTW, most locomotives in the US are diesel/electric, and have been for a long time, for that reason. As I have pointed out in prior posts on this forum, rail is the most efficient way we have to transport any heavy object over land.
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Tim 10:10AM (11/20/2006)
Howard - Straight veggie bio-diesel is too efficient, and a diesel-electric PHEV is even more so. The original diesel engines built over 100 years ago were designed to run specifically on veggie oil, not petroleum. It is taking so long simply because it would break our addiction to petroleum. There’s still some of that left in the ground. Big Oil needs the help of Big Auto to keep addicted just a little bit longer until they can change drugs with the help of Big Gov’t and get us addicted to Big Hydrogen so they can “save the planet” while maintaining their customer base and maximizing future profits. That’s the Big Picture. Want proof? http://internalcombustionbook.com We’re singing off the same sheet of music, let’s flip through the rest of the songbook.
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CR 10:43AM (11/21/2006)
Regarding:
"There’s still some of that left in the ground"
In fact, there is quite a lot of it still in the ground. I doubt that in our life time we'll see something besides petroleum providing most of the fuel for our vehicles. There's just too much out there. It's too cheap to extract. And there will be more and more discoveries as we get better and better at exploring and extracting deep sea deposits.
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sp 11:26AM (11/21/2006)
Actually, Toyota has been selling diesel hybrid small van in Japan since 2004 and this was the first production diesel hybrid...
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RJR 3:01AM (11/27/2006)
Toyota needs to get with Nissan and implement this new capacitor technology:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYH/is_2_7/ai_97757261
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Chris M 10:27PM (2/17/2009)
That so-called "SuperPower" capacitor may have double the energy density of ordinary capacitors, but that still means lower energy density than standard lead acid batteries. Nissan plans to use it on a 4 to 8 ton truck, where the additional weight and size won't be as much of a problem.
Durability and high power output is the advantage, but that might not be enough for other hybrid applications.
Talk About Cars 3:57PM (12/12/2006)
I think that this is a better plan for a Toyota rather than concentrate more on electric hybrids. But why does we need to wait three more years knowing that the automaker has all the capacity to build such cars in just a short span of time.
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mikeinBuilding7 7:30PM (5/11/2007)
Sounds good. Only wish GM and FORD were singing the same song.
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J J Aron 3:56PM (10/12/2007)
How many Toyota Tacoma Diesel Hybrid Pick-ups could Toyota sell in the U.S.? Well, I'd get one (maybe two). Plus about fifty million more to anyone with an automotive brain in their head. Nevermind the hybrid bit - I'll take a new Tacoma Diesel, built like a Hi-Lux, or even built like a Tacoma. Let's do it, Toyota - I'm too lazy to build it myself.
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