Direction and Trend of Technical Development of Hybrid Vehicles

Toyota has marketed HV starting from Prius since 1997. Our goal is to contribute to spreading personal mobility to all over the world, simultaneously to provide the solution to GHG, energy resource shortage and emission problems. Our practical target is to introduce the power-train whose fuel economy is extremely higher than the conventional gasoline engine system, and its efficiency is also continued to be improved. In order to realize our target, the reduction of energy usage is necessary by not only improvement of each HV component such as engine, battery, motor/generator and inverter, but innovation of control method to use them in maximum efficiency balance.