Report: Toyota to Enter Hybrid in 2010 Le Mans

20 January 2008

Yomiuri Shimbun. Toyota Motor Corp. plans to re-enter competition in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 2010, this time using hybrid cars. Toyota has never won the race, in which it last ran in 1999.

In 2007, Toyota’s Supra HV-R hybrid race car won the Tokachi 24-Hour Race, marking the first time that a hybrid race car won such a competition. (Earlier post.)

Dozens of Toyota employees from its motor sports and hybrid vehicle development divisions have formed a team to develop racing cars for Le Mans. Because cars designed exclusively for racing compete in the Le Mans race, Toyota will have to vastly improve its racing prototypes.

“Current hybrid racing cars are still too heavy and suffer from inadequate transmission efficiency,” a Toyota official said.

After dropping out of Le Mans in 1999, Toyota entered the F-1 in 2002. Le Mans, however, is more open to cars with newer technology. In 2006 and 2007, Audi won the Le Mans championship using a car with a diesel engine. (Earlier post.)

“Audi demonstrated the excellence of new generation diesel-powered cars through the Le Mans race. We want to do the same with our hybrid model,” a Toyota official said.