Toyota Motor Corp yesterday showcased next-generation engines that can be used in vehicles as varied as hybrids and those running on biofuel, as it targets tougher emissions standards and doubles down on its strategy of selling more than just electric vehicles (EVs).
At a media event with peers Subaru Corp and Mazda Motor Corp, the world’s biggest automaker by volume displayed in-development 1.5-liter and 2-liter engines with significantly reduced volume and height compared with current engines.
“With these engines, each of the three companies will aim to optimize integration with motors, batteries and other electric drive units,” they said in a joint statement.
Photo: Reuters
Toyota owns about one-fifth of Subaru and about 5 percent of Mazda.
The three said their efforts would help decarbonize internal combustion engines by making them compatible with alternative fuel sources such as e-fuels and biofuels.
They also hope more compact engines would revamp vehicle design by allowing for lower hoods.
Toyota is widely considered an EV laggard, but a slowdown in EV growth has seen it benefit from an uptake of gasoline-electric hybrids. Refreshing its traditional engine technology against that backdrop mirrors a similar move at Mercedes-Benz AG.
The Japanese automaker said its new 1.5-liter engine would achieve volume and weight reduction of 10 percent versus its existing 1.5-liter engines, which it uses in vehicles such as its Yaris compact.
The new 2-liter turbo engine would have similar gains versus existing 2.4-liter turbo engines used in bigger models such as three-row seating sport utility vehicles.
Toyota chief technology officer Hiroki Nakajima declined to say when the company would launch models equipped with the engines.
While EVs have become more prominent in the past few years, Toyota has been following a “multi-pathway” approach to carbon neutrality with vehicles offering a range of powertrains.
It sold about 2.4 million vehicles in the January-to-March period, of which nearly two-fifths were gasoline-electric hybrids. Plug-in hybrid, fuel-cell and all-battery electric vehicles together accounted for just 2.9 percent.
Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda in January said EVs would reach a global auto market share of 30 percent at most, with hybrids, hydrogen fuel-cell and fuel-burning vehicles making up the rest.
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