Toyota is developing the next stage of hybrid vehicles, thanks to advancements that have been influenced by the early success of its TS040 racer in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
The Japanese car maker is the largest producer of petrol-electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) and it claims it has developed a new breed of computer chip that could boost the fuel efficiency of future Prius, Auris and Camry PHEVs by up to 10 per cent, while also significantly reducing the size of the power control unit (PCU). And while a lot of this research into chips has been enacted in laboratories, the TS040's winning start to the WEC season (and its outing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans looming on the horizon) is being used as a testing bed to improve road-car hybrid technology as a corollary of its success. The TS040 is all-wheel drive and harvests more braking energy than its predecessor, allowing power levels to jump by 18 per cent while reducing fuel consumption by 25 per cent.
Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Toyota Racing's president, said: "We are competing in order to test the latest hybrid technology in the most extreme motorsport environments, and this has a direct influence on future road-car technology."
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The new chips, used as power semi-conductors, are made from silicon carbide, not just silicon, and they're more efficient than the items they replace because they reduce the amount of current lost as heat. Their design will allow the PCU of PHEVs to be 80 per cent smaller as a result, equating to real-world fuel savings of 10 per cent - as an estimated 20 per cent of the total power loss in hybrids is associated with the power semi-conductors. Toyota says the silicon carbide chips will undergo road-testing in Japan within the year.