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.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
RSS