WOW. Toyota’s newest hybrid is a sports car, with 408 horsepower, 100 km/liter, 0-100km in 4 seconds, 3 seat, carries both an electric engine and a 3.3L V6, designed by Giugiaro/ItalDesign.
AutoWeek – 2004 Geneva: Hybrid-powered Toyota coupe has Italian flair
Well, the first car to beat the 100 kilometers per hour limit was electric, so electric and low performance do not necessarily go hand in hand.
Um, 100 km / litre of petrol is not entirely believable. Let’s do some simple math. That’s about 62 miles / litre. There are about 3.8 litres / gallon – so that works out to about 230 miles per gallon. The Civic gets about 60. A 4x increase in mileage for that type of power output seems a bit unreasonable. I suspect a typo in that article, and that it’s fuel requirements are similar to those of other hybrids. On the other hand, if it requires external charging, then who knows – but at that point, the comparison is without meaning.
cdg
Christian Gates wrote:
“Um, 100 km / litre of petrol is not entirely believable. Let’s do some simple math [..] that works out to about 230 miles per gallon”
Christian, one thing that seems to have escaped you is that the Toyota Volta doesn’t have to output 408HP continuously.
At a moderate speed — say, 50Km/h, — a vehicle’s power demand can be quite modest, and the Volta’s hybrid systems’ thermodynamic efficiency might actually be good enough to achieve that 230 mpg.
As a comparison, the winning car, built by French students, in Shell’s 2003 Eco-Marathon competition achieved an average fuel consumption of 10705 mpg — i.e. their design was almost *fifty* times more fuel-efficient than the Volta. The car architectures were of course not comparable, but the French record car didn’t weigh 1/50th of the Toyota Volta either.
I read it was 40mpg. It has the same powertrain as the Lexus RX hybrid, and reports say around 40mpg for that. 40 is a safe bet.
“Volta’s hybrid systems’ thermodynamic efficiency might actually be good enough to achieve that 230 mpg.”
Until they change from the Otto cycle internal combustion engine, that will never happen. Keep in mind, any hybrid system will essentially never perform more efficiently than a normal ICE running constantly at its most efficient load. For most properly designed vehicles, this is around 60 mph. The hybrid system just allows you to maintain better performance and reduce the impact of non-optimum (stop and go) operation on your average MPG.
The Honda Insight runs purely ICE (no electric input) at freeway speeds and gets 70-100mpg from the 1.0 liter 3-cylinder engine. Any vehicle with greater weight, drag, # of cylinders, or other inefficiency will get lower MPG. The Synergy drive system is designed differently and uses electric power transfer in most operating modes, so it will be inherently less efficient at freeway speeds (it is optimized for stop-and-go driving).
So, 40mpg sounds appropriate.
“Until they change from the Otto cycle internal combustion engine, that will never happen”
Go tell the French students who built the Shell EcoMarathon single-seater that achieved a record 10705mpg — i.e. about 50 times better than the Volta — that their car shoud never have happened
Their car used a 30.5cc Otto engine…
“For most properly designed vehicles, this is around 60 mph.”
Nope. The design’s global efficiency, or mileage, will be a function of vehicle speed.
As a first approximation, aerodynamic drag is proportional to the square of wind velocity; for most vehicles, 60mph is way beyond their optimal energy efficiency speed.
Its 60mpg. 0-62mph in 4.2 sec
Do yo belive it will be produced? Wait of coarse not its toyota-
when is the toyota volta coming to ireland
when is the toyota volta coming to ireland
The Volta does not run on on its Combustion Engine. The V6 only charges the batteries for the electric motors which continously run the vehicle. This allows the V6 engine to be postioned in any configuration any where on the vehicle.
will hit germany in december and us markets 3 months after. estimated price of 72k us.
The way I understand it:
Getting the car going is where you waste all your gas in a typical combustion vehicle. Once the car is running at highway speeds constantly, gas economy goes way up. The volta uses its electric motors to provide all the torque necessary to get the car up to crusining speed, then the combustion engine takes over, running at high fuel economy, or wide open for high top speeds.
The electric motors are all torque for short periods of time.
Small gasoline engines are gas effectient, but are missing torque.
The two systems compliment each other perfectly.
I would imagine the system is similiar to the prius, where regenerative breaking is used to generate the power needed to operate the electric motors.
The way I understand it:
Getting the car going is where you waste all your gas in a typical combustion vehicle. Once the car is running at highway speeds constantly, gas economy goes way up. The volta uses its electric motors to provide all the torque necessary to get the car up to crusining speed, then the combustion engine takes over, running at high fuel economy, or wide open for high top speeds.
The electric motors are all torque for short periods of time.
Small gasoline engines are gas effectient, but are missing torque.
The two systems compliment each other perfectly.
I would imagine the system is similiar to the prius, where regenerative breaking is used to generate the power needed to operate the electric motors.
The way I understand it:
Getting the car going is where you waste all your gas in a typical combustion vehicle. Once the car is running at highway speeds constantly, gas economy goes way up. The volta uses its electric motors to provide all the torque necessary to get the car up to crusining speed, then the combustion engine takes over, running at high fuel economy, or wide open for high top speeds.
The electric motors are all torque for short periods of time.
Small gasoline engines are gas effectient, but are missing torque.
The two systems compliment each other perfectly.
I would imagine the system is similiar to the prius, where regenerative breaking is used to generate the power needed to operate the electric motors.