Toyota to sell compact hybrid with better fuel efficiency than Prius

Friday 14th August, 06:48 AM JST

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presto345 at 02:09 PM JST - 14th August

Very good. Let Honda and Toyota compete and come up with ever more advanced technology.
scoobydoo at 02:18 PM JST - 14th August

Some how the US seems to think its OK to continue gobbling non renewable resources and say that if they changed the economy would fail. Not to worry about the time after this generation is dead. I saw on TV the other night a pretty big pilot plant and project for hydrogen cars and also Denmark has two of its main cities linked by hydrogen gas stations. The auto makers of the world had better get into it or they will be left completely behind by Japans advancing technology. Its amazing how Japan, one of the most tradition keeping countries, can also be one of the most innovative as a whole and leave for dead the so called world leaders of automotive like the US. World car makers don't seem to realize that this sort of innovation is less risky than just doing the same old thing and surely rotting their business to death.
darkmanv at 02:24 PM JST - 14th August

this is the reason why the american steel companies went bankrupt . they refused to retool factories and update . using old technology they could not compete . foreign steel producers overcame them . then it was too late to modernize .
presto345 at 04:06 PM JST - 14th August

Its amazing how Japan, one of the most tradition keeping countries, can also be one of the most innovative

It isn't really. Traditions rooted in Japanese culture are motivation, industriousness and allegiance. Values that never took hold in North America.
dontpanic at 04:27 PM JST - 14th August

"94 miles per gallon?" Or 125mpg if using imperial measures (bigger, therefore better). Impressive number but likely unachievable in real world driving. If they insist on pursuing hybrids, I wish they would look at hybrid deisels. That would genuinely reduce vehicle whole of life CO2 emmissions.
sfjp330 at 09:25 AM JST - 15th August

If they insist on pursuing hybrids, I wish they would look at hybrid deisels.

Toyota recently annouced that they will no longer pursue Isuzu diesel technology due current economic situation.

What a boring car and everybody looks at how marvalous this car is. What do you have a 1.0 gas powered engine/hybrid? This is a dangerous car on U.S. highway. Prius is also one of the most boring car ever. I guess Japanese is into ladies fashion.
Klein2 at 04:46 PM JST - 15th August

Boring cars. Yeah. Well. There is a time to say "been there done that" and just use automobiles for transportation rather than entertainment. In the face of dwindling natural resources, it is time to chuck the neck-snapping acceleration of the Corvette and realize that most people want to get to work efficiently, reliably, cheaply, and safely. Adolf Hitler tried to do it with the VW Beetle. Ford with the Pinto. Now let the Japanese take over with the Prius and the Fit.

The reality is that Japan does not allow speeds over 100 on expressways, I think, which seemed slow to me at first, but now seems sane. So the Benz has become superfluous here... Hey... go have fun on the autobahns, but Japan is made for Japanese habits, and the NPA frowns upon speed (as Noriko Sakai showed hee hee.. little pun there).

Anyway, HUZZAH!!! The PRIUS is a great design for its purpose, and what more can be expected? Toyota continues to give me great news and hope that human daily life will not crush the planet.

By the way, as far as diesels go, suffice it to say that Toyota has some other fish to fry. I have no doubt that the diesel tech will be pursued by someone. Japan has 7 or 8 extremely competent automobile companies... probably more than the rest of the world put together.
dontpanic at 11:11 PM JST - 15th August

"What do you have a 1.0 gas powered engine/hybrid? This is a dangerous car on U.S. highway"

When theres nowhere else to go, ridicule is all thats left? No, I have an Audi A4 diesel that is as economical as a Prius, as quick as a flash in the traffic light grand prix and will cruise all day at a ton.

My point was that a diesel hybrid would produce far better emissions results than a petrol hybrid. Unfortunately Japanese cities are not friendly towards the diesel reducing their useful life with legislation. So manufacturers pursue vehicles they can market in large volume. European manuafacturers are pursuing diesel hybrids though, we'll see what the results are.

As for the 1.0 car, it will criuse quite happily on the US highway but it just wont be seen and may possibly crushed crushed under the outdated and worthless Expeditions and Cherokees.
Klein2 at 06:20 AM JST - 16th August

But wait... the Expeditions and Cherokees are not worthless...

I know of a place you can get 4500 bucks for them.
helloklitty at 11:12 AM JST - 16th August

My point was that a diesel hybrid would produce far better emissions results than a petrol hybrid. Unfortunately Japanese cities are not friendly towards the diesel reducing their useful life with legislation. So manufacturers pursue vehicles they can market in large volume. European manuafacturers are pursuing diesel hybrids though, we'll see what the results are.

Diesel rules. Much cleaner than before.
cabdriver at 05:31 PM JST - 16th August

I have to admit, I'm waitin' for the bio-diesel hybrid.
Klein2 at 04:33 PM JST - 17th August

That would be something. Cabdriver, I am just guessing that the RPMs on a diesel are not high enough to get the best effiency from a gasoline powered generator. So it might not be the best engine for a hybrid. It is certainly more fuel efficient to make diesel fuel, though... maybe it all balances out.

The founder of Compaq left the company years ago. I think the mid 90s, and he founded another company producing hybrid engines... WITH JET ENGINES as the power source to charge the batteries!! As you probably know, jet engines use kerosene, which is not different from diesel fuel much at all, but the jet engines gave very very high efficiency and an inexpensive fuel source. I wonder what ever became of that..... I can just imagine that a very small one would provide this burst of thrust and recharge the batteries. Then you would shut it off and run off of batteries... I am not sure how it all worked. Probably he didn't either.

Anyway, the beautiful thing about new technologies is that they give us all more options. Not everyone must accept the same option. I am not sure when I will be able to justify purchasing a PRIUS, for instance, based solely on marginal benefits, but it is good that some people are buying them instead of SUVs. It makes the world better for all of us.
sfjp330 at 03:17 AM JST - 18th August

In a future, diesel/hybrid technology might be the option for major automakers like Toyota. The problem might be the acceptance by the public to buy diesel. There will be inconvenience of not having enough gas stations to carry diesel fuel, both local and interstate. Currently, BMW, Volkwagon, Mercedes Benz has extensive R/D and production on diesel technology. But if you look at number of diesel cars being sold, it's extremly low compared to gas powered cars. This is based on economics of supply and demand, and if you have main producer like Toyota building Prius with diesel/hybrid, you might have better acceptance and demand by the public. The ideal size diesel for Toyota would be around1.5 litre, turbo-diesl with a low boost, and will likely get 15 to 25 percent better gas milage than the current gas/hybrid engine. The problem with Prius is the weight of this vehicle.This car weight over 3000 lbs, and if you look at a comparable interior space and the size of Honda Fit, a non-hybrid with 1.5 engine, the Fit weighs around 2250 lbs. You have around 800 lbs of difference, and actually, for the price of the Fit, you can have substantical savings from the initial purchase price and the performance is about the same. In a normal driving for the freeways, there is not much of difference in gas consumption. The advantage of Prius is mostly in the city, in a slow driving environment. However, if you based on the initial purchase price difference, Prius will take you many years to recover and probably will not recover the cost difference. Hybrd/gas engine will be a short term solution, and probably within 10 years, you will see increase in plug in efficient lithium-ion battery cars without the use of fossil fuel as a normal daily life in the city environment.
sfjp330 at 07:52 AM JST - 18th August

the outdated and worthless Expeditions dontpanic; Expedition might be due to high consumption of fuel but, not outdated, actually, the Expedition uses F150 truck frame, a body and frame design, and offers 4.0 V6, 4.6 V8 and 5.4 V8 engine, and the V8 has 6 speed automatic transmission. Currently, they sell over 600,000 F150's and is the largest seller in the U.S. and they are a good value compare to full size Toyota Sequioa or Tundra trucks. The engine, 5.4 SOHC - 315HP, is very reliable performing engine and burns regular unleaded gas compare to Toyota. These F150's will last 250,000 to 300,000 miles (400,000km+) if you follow normal maintanance. Toyota and Nissan has not made much dent in the large vehicle. Still the large trucks in the U.S. are dominated by Ford and GM as 1 & 2.
dontpanic at 05:47 PM JST - 18th August

sfjp330 - At least theres something we agree on, I too agree hybrids, diesel or petrol, are a stop gap. But we disagree on the long term solutions, plug-in electric cars are just another stop gap measure swapping dependance on imported oil to imported lithium.