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Toyota Racing Outs Hybrid Powered Endurance Race Car

Hybrids generally bring to mind boring cars like the Prius that have a gasoline engine and a battery system to supplement that gasoline engine for better fuel economy. Hybrids are also growing to be something more interesting to enthusiasts with several hybrid power racecars now lapping tracks around the world.

  The latest of these hybrid racecars is the Toyota TS030 Hybrid endurance prototype. The car is the first LMP1 car to use a hybrid powertrain. The racecar still has a gasoline V8 engine under the swoopy bodywork. The gasoline engine is a 3.4L V8 and it is coupled with two potential electric powertrains. One potential system puts a front mounted electric motor developed by Aisin AW and the second system uses a rear-mounted Denso electric motor. 

  Hisatake Murata, Hybrid Project Leader, said, "Toyota has been working on hybrid systems for motorsport for several years, during which time we have made huge progress. Now we feel ready to bring our technology to the ultimate motorsport test: the Le Mans 24 Hours.

  “Toyota's hybrid technology has already won a 24-hour race – the Tokachi 24 Hours in 2007 – so now we are bringing the latest THS-R development to global motorsport; we know this is a technically-demanding exercise but we are well prepared for the challenge."

   
The drivetrain uses a 500kJ capacitor that is supplied by Nisshinbo. The racecar uses a carbon fiber chassis and will debut on May 5 in the six hours of Spa-Francorchamps for the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championships. The drivers that will pilot the hybrid racecar in competition include Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima. Toyota will enter a second TS030 Hybrid car in the event and the driver lineup for that vehicle has yet to be confirmed.

  Driver Alex Wurz said, "It was cool to drive the TS030 HYBRID car for the first time. Just leaving the garage on the electric power is very futuristic, then when you let the clutch go and the internal combustion engine kicks in it is like an old friend has returned! When we put on the slick tyre I could feel the car generates a very good amount of grip so I think we have a good base and I think we can turn this into a really fast car."

  Regulations in the racing series that are in place prohibit the cars from capturing more than 500kJ between braking zones and then restrict the use of that power to only two wheels. In testing the hybrid racecar was able to run several hundred kilometers without issues.

Source: dailytech.com

 

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Toyota Prius Wagon Sales in 10 Weeks Top GM Volt Total for 2011

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. scored a quick victory in 2011 as U.S. deliveries of its Prius v wagon in 10 weeks topped sales of General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Volt plug- in hybrid that was available all year.

Toyota sold 8,399 of the hybrid wagon, which didn’t arrive at U.S. dealerships until the last week of October, said Carly Schaffner, a spokeswoman for the company. GM delivered 7,671 rechargeable Volts in 2011 and 7,997 in the model’s first 13 months on the market. The Japanese automaker hadn’t distinguished Prius v sales from those of the original one.

“Prius v is off to a great start,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s U.S. sales unit, said in an e-mail statement yesterday, without elaborating. The hybrid wagon starts at $26,400, Toyota said on its website. The Volt starts at $39,145 and is eligible for as much as $7,500 in federal tax credits.

Toyota, the largest gasoline-electric auto seller, wants to deliver 220,000 vehicles bearing the Prius name this year to U.S. customers, a 60 percent increase from 2011. That’s to be fueled by a four-car “family” consisting of the original hatchback, the v, the Prius c subcompact arriving in March, and a plug-in Prius that goes about 15 miles on battery power.

GM missed its goal of selling 10,000 Volts last year. A slow production increase kept dealers for the Detroit-based company in short supply until December, and a federal investigation of three fires that occurred after Volt crash tests lowered demand for the car, according to Bandon, Oregon- based CNW Marketing Research Inc.

Source: businessweek.com