![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Hybrid goodness
I wandered down to the Toyota dealer and picked up some Prius literature. They got a Prius in on Saturday as a demo vehicle, so I nicked down there this morning to check it out and maybe do a test drive. They sold the car on Saturday to the first bloke to test-drive it.
The engine is a 4cyl 1.5ltr giving 57Kw@5000rpm (76.5HP), and the electric motor gives another 50Kw (67HP)+ 400NM of torque. It means you can drag off a Porsche for 15 metres. 0-100kph in 11 seconds isn't too bad.
According to the stats the petrol/electric system has the same performance as the larger 4Cylinder cars, but also gets 1000km on a 45litre tank. Which is nice. I'd heard a rumour that Toyota are so pleased with the hybrid system, they're thinking of adding it as an option to their whole range of cars.
I'd love the "I-Tech" pack: internal Bluetooth, satellite navigation, stability control, and a very cool "smart key." The smart key means you only have to carry the key. The car unlocks when you get 1.metre from it (or locks as you exceed 1m from it) and you only need press the start button to turn the motor on. No keyholes for arseholes to break. The I-Tech pack adds nearly $10k to the price, bringing it up to AU$48k.
But I'd also like a Monaro.
The engine is a 4cyl 1.5ltr giving 57Kw@5000rpm (76.5HP), and the electric motor gives another 50Kw (67HP)+ 400NM of torque. It means you can drag off a Porsche for 15 metres. 0-100kph in 11 seconds isn't too bad.
According to the stats the petrol/electric system has the same performance as the larger 4Cylinder cars, but also gets 1000km on a 45litre tank. Which is nice. I'd heard a rumour that Toyota are so pleased with the hybrid system, they're thinking of adding it as an option to their whole range of cars.
I'd love the "I-Tech" pack: internal Bluetooth, satellite navigation, stability control, and a very cool "smart key." The smart key means you only have to carry the key. The car unlocks when you get 1.metre from it (or locks as you exceed 1m from it) and you only need press the start button to turn the motor on. No keyholes for arseholes to break. The I-Tech pack adds nearly $10k to the price, bringing it up to AU$48k.
But I'd also like a Monaro.
no subject
As to the battery, I suspect that it'll get better in the future, but right now, the cost isn't the labor, but the batteries themselves, look at the price on a good car battery, and then imagine this thing needing just six of those, and you get the picture, since its likely quite a bit more(an electric Ford Ranger pickup in a book I've got on electric cars needed around 24 car batteries). This of course assumes that Toyota wasn't stupid enough to integrate any of the electronics into the batteries. Having worked in auto parts, the industry will offer a dealer alternative once the market is there, and consider the acceptance of hybrids, that'll likely be less than five years.
Will Toyota put the hybrid drivetrain in more vehicles? Yes, currently production is up, costs are down on the new Prius as they learned a lot from the first one, in fact, supposedly its cheaper and easier to build one of these than a gas powered car, just the electric parts cost a lot more. Also they're working towards making it possible to replace the regular drivetrain with a hybrid, which really isn't hard in a front drive car, since the engine and transaxle are already installed as a package, so it'd be a matter of installing a different package. The rumor I heard said that they'll offer hybrid versions of their next generation small to medium cars, although bigger cars and most trucks'll require an uprated version of this drivetrain.