Toyota starts production of 5th-generation hybrid powertrain in Europe for new Corolla
20 December 2022
Toyota Motor Europe (TME) has started production of its 5th-generation hybrid powertrains for the new Corolla. The latest Toyota hybrid electric low-emission powertrains will be made at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland (TMMP) and Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK (TMUK) for the new Corollas manufactured at TMUK and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey (TMMT).
5th generation hybrid transmission 1.8L
The start of production of 5th-generation hybrid engines and transmissions follows the upgrade of seven production lines supported by new investments of €77 million and €541,000 at the plants in Poland and the UK respectively.
MG1
TMMP produces hybrid electric transmissions including the MG1 and MG2 motors, integral electrical components of hybrid transmission. The MG1 is an auxiliary motor/generator which acts as a starter for the gasoline engine, generates electricity to power the MG2 motor and charges battery.
MG2
The MG2 is the main electric motor that drives the wheels using current generated by the MG1 and the battery. It also recoups part of kinetic energy generated by breaking and deceleration.
These products will be combined with the new 1.8 liter gasoline engine produced at TMUK to form the 5th-generation hybrid electric powertrain.
1.8L engine
This 5th generation Toyota hybrid technology features lighter, more compact and higher-powered electric motors, which increases the electric drive ratio in the hybrid system.
As a result of improved engine calibrations, the vehicle has more power, better overall performance and drivability resulting in lower CO2 emissions for the 1.8 liter version. The total power of hybrid drive system with the 1.8 liter engine is 140hp, reducing the 0-100km/h acceleration time by 1.7 seconds, to 9.2 seconds.
The new 5th-generation hybrid electric powertrain replaces the 4th-generation systems previously produced at TMMP and TMUK since 2018 and 2016 respectively. During this time TME has accelerated its investments in hybrid technology, and in the last four years, the overall electrified mix in the total Toyota’s European sales has grown from 30% to 66%.
Toyota’s affordable, low-emission hybrid electrified vehicles have an important role to play in our pan-European multi-technology strategy which seeks to help everyone lower their carbon emissions. Hybrid technology now features in 70% and 85% respectively of the engines and transmissions produced at TMMP and TMUK, which is a reflection of the ever-growing customer demand for Toyota hybrid products.
—Marvin Cooke, Executive Vice President for Manufacturing, Toyota Motor Europe
Wow! Toyota is really progressive and future oriented! What they're bringing to market now, I had suggested back in 1973 during the first oil crisis; that was fifty years ago. Real entrepreneurs; keep up your innovative work and you'll soon be out of business.
Posted by: yoatmon | 20 December 2022 at 03:15 AM
Its amazing that even just here on this blog, we are fortunate enough to have the profound thoughts of so many who know infinitely more about road transport and how to power it than mere Toyota, for instance:
'While Japan was behind China in car output, the Japanese Toyota was the best-selling automotive brand worldwide in 2021, holding some 10.5 percent of the global market. It was followed by Germany-based Volkswagen, which held 6.4 percent of the market.'
https://translate.google.ch/?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&text=larrons%0A&op=translate
As further proof that Toyota has just got lucky, VW were level pegging with Toyota until deciding that now was the time to go all in on big battery BEVs
The initial heavy lifting in setting up supply chains for electric vehicles was done by Toyota with the Prius, which enabled others to buy components in heavier duty versions after the manufacturing capability has already been put in place to serve Toyota.
But what do they know about cars?
Or the guy running it, the physicist who was head of the team which created the Prius.
No doubt many here could have done better in an afternoon in their workshop.
Posted by: Davemart | 20 December 2022 at 11:38 AM
Toyota will do what it can with their limited battery supply not jeopardizing their 10 million units sold per year.
Their take is that it's more beneficial use of battery to make ~50 HEVs instead of one BEV. Slowly when supply chain catches up, they will up their game on the BEV side. I admit this is disappointing from the potential EV customer side of view, but you got to understand the capitalist point of view from Toyota :)
Posted by: GasperG | 21 December 2022 at 03:27 AM
@Davemart,
I am not sure why you want to defend Toyota. In a number of ways, they seem to be hopelessly out of date. The main things I have against them is that they were the one company that contributed the most money to the political campaigns of the US politicians that conspired to keep Trump in power and overthrow our democracy. They back pedaled on this after it became public knowledge and a number of their customers declared they would never again buy another Toyota. But then they lobbied the US Congress to try to prevent California and other states form banning the sell of light duty vehicles with iC engines after 2035 even though Ford, GM, and a number of other major manufacturers stated that they would cease selling vehicles with IC engines in the whole country by 2035 or sooner. In an article above, Audi just announced that they would quit making IC powered vehicles world wide by 2033. Meanwhile, someone in the past year or so attached a presentation that showed that Toyota was planning to sell non-hybrid IC powered vehicles until 2050 and only after 2050 would all of their vehicles be at least hybrid. You can not get to zero emissions by cutting the emissions by 20%.
Now if you want to ask me if I think that I am smarter than the engineers at Toyota, I would estimate that I am smarter that about 98% of them and while I might not know all of the minutia of manufacturing upholstery, etc, I do have a fair knowledge of IC engines, especially diesel engines, along with automotive manufacturing technology, batteries, electric motors, etc. I know enough about engines to know that Toyota could do better with the design of the engine in the above article. A smaller turbo-charged engine would be lighter, produce more power, and get better mileage. If you make an apples to apples comparison of mileage of different vehicles, you will find that Toyota comes out worse than GM or Ford. Why is that if the Toyota engineers are so smart?
Posted by: sd | 22 December 2022 at 10:58 AM
@ sd:
I wouldn't question the intelligence of Toyota's engineers but their top management, making those decisions determining their manufacturing route, appear to be as bright as some of the commentators on this blog.
Posted by: yoatmon | 23 December 2022 at 03:06 AM
@yoatmon
I agree that a good part of the problem is with the Japanese management style and society in general. It is very top down and the younger engineers do not get to make independent decisions and try new ideas. This does not lead to good engineering.
When, I was in my mid-20s, I worked for MIT Instrumentation Lab (now Draper Lab) on the Apollo project (Yea, I am old now). MIT was the prime contractor for the guidance system and I ran the lunar lander simulator. I remember going down to Houston and having a seat around a large boat shaped table when they they went around the table asking MIT are you ready, Grumman are you ready, General Dynamics are you ready, etc. Also, a few years later, I worked on a Navy project that required some robotics expertise. I had an idea to automate the task that was contrary to what they expected. The Navy project manager had a consultant that questioned my engineering judgement. After the meeting, my supervisor asked if I thought my idea would work and when I said yes, he said let's do it your way. When it worked just fine, the Navy project manager looked really pleased as I do think that he really liked the consultant that much. A few years later, I had a supervisor while working on a project to automate the loading of automotive machining lines. He told to concentrate on the engineering and he would run management interference for me.
This is what is missing with Toyota's management style and thus engineering.
Posted by: sd | 23 December 2022 at 08:10 AM
yoatman, sd:
In Toyota management here is for instance the cv of the no-nothing time server who is currently Chairman of the Board:
' Takeshi Uchiyamada was born on August 17, 1946. He graduated from Nagoya University with a degree in applied physics in March 1969, and joined Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) in April the same year.
In January 1994, Mr. Uchiyamada became project general manager of Vehicle Development Center 2. In January 1996, he became chief engineer of the center, which developed the Prius―the world's first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car.
After being named to the Board of Directors in June 1998, Mr. Uchiyamada oversaw Vehicle Development Center 3. In June 2000, he became chief officer of Vehicle Development Center 2, and in June 2001, became the managing director and chief officer of the Overseas Customer Service Operations Center. Mr. Uchiyamada was made a senior managing director (this title was changed to senior managing officer as of June 2011), and was also appointed chief officer of the Vehicle Engineering Group in June 2003. In June 2004, he became chief officer of the Production Control & Logistics Group, and in June 2005, he became an executive vice president. Mr. Uchiyamada was appointed vice chairman of the board of directors in June 2012, and then chairman in June 2013.'
https://global.toyota/en/company/profile/executives/board-of-director/takeshi_uchiyamada.html
Your comments reveal prejudice, or deep ignorance, or both.
Because you don't like some of their choices, does not make them fools.
And because you don't agree with the directions they have taken, it does not mean that they are not running what continues to be the largest and most respected company in the automative world, setting standards in decarbonisation throughout the production chain, whilst building cars for everyman, not just mandated and subsidised bling.
You might imagine that they are 'inevitably' going to fail since you don't fancy what they are doing, but there is no sign at all that that is what is happening, so perhaps you should wait for them to fail before pronouncing them failures.
Posted by: Davemart | 23 December 2022 at 01:16 PM
@ sd:
Our suspicions have now undoubtedly been confirmed from our adversary.
Posted by: yoatmon | 25 December 2022 at 03:58 AM