Within the early Nineteen Nineties, Toyota noticed that environmental consciousness and tighter emissions laws would form the way forward for the automotive business. The corporate aimed to create an eco-friendly, environment friendly automobile that may meet future requirements.
In 1997 Toyota launched the Prius to the Japanese market. The automotive was the world’s first mass-produced hybrid automobile that mixed gasoline and electrical energy to cut back gasoline consumption and emissions. Its worldwide debut got here in 2000.
Growing the Prius posed important technical and market challenges that included designing an environment friendly hybrid energy practice, managing battery expertise, and overcoming client skepticism about combining an electrical drivetrain system with the usual gasoline-fueled energy practice. Toyota persevered, nevertheless, and its instincts proved prescient and transformative.
“The Prius isn’t solely the world’s first mass-produced hybrid automotive, however its technical and industrial success additionally spurred different automakers to speed up hybrid automobile growth,” says IEEE Member Nobuo Kawaguchi, a professor within the computational science and engineering division at Nagoya College’s Graduate College of Engineering, in Japan. He’s additionally secretary of the IEEE Nagoya Part. “The Prius helped form the position of hybrid automobiles in in the present day’s automotive market.”
The Prius was honored with an IEEE Milestone on 30 October throughout a ceremony held at firm headquarters in Toyota Metropolis, Japan.
The G21 venture
The event of the Prius started in 1993 with the G21 venture, which centered on gasoline effectivity, low emissions, and affordability. In keeping with a Toyota article detailing the venture’s historical past, by 1997, Toyota engineers—together with Takeshi Uchiyamada, who has since develop into referred to as the “father of the Prius”—had been happy that they had met the problem of reaching all three targets.
The primary-generation Prius featured a compact design with aerodynamic effectivity. Its groundbreaking hybrid system enabled clean transitions between an electrical motor powered by a nickel–metallic hydride battery and an inner combustion engine fueled by gasoline.
The automotive’s design integrated regenerative braking within the power-train association to reinforce the automobile’s power effectivity. Regenerative braking captures the kinetic power sometimes misplaced as warmth when typical brake pads cease the wheels with friction. As a substitute, the electrical motor switches over to generator mode in order that the wheels drive the motor in reverse slightly than the motor driving the wheels. Utilizing the motor as a generator slows the automotive and converts the kinetic power into {an electrical} cost routed to the battery to recharge it.
“The Prius isn’t solely the world’s first mass-produced hybrid automotive, however its technical and industrial success additionally spurred different automakers to speed up hybrid automobile growth.” —Nobuo Kawaguchi, IEEE Nagoya Part secretary
In keeping with the corporate’s “Harnessing Effectivity: A Deep Dive Into Toyota’s Hybrid Know-how” article, a breakthrough was the Hybrid Synergy Drive, a system that permits the Prius to function in numerous modes—electrical solely, gasoline solely, or a mix—relying on driving situations.
A key part Toyota engineers developed from scratch was the facility break up machine, a planetary gear system that permits clean transitions between electrical and gasoline energy, allowing the engine and the motor to propel the automobile of their respective optimum efficiency ranges. The association helps optimize gasoline financial system and simplifies the drivetrain by making a standard transmission pointless.
Setting fuel-efficiency data
Practically 30 years after its industrial debut, the Prius stays an icon of environmental accountability mixed with technical innovation. It’s nonetheless setting data for gasoline effectivity. When in July 2023 the newly launched 2024 Prius LE was pushed from Los Angeles to New York Metropolis, it consumed a miserly 2.52 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers throughout the 5,150-km cross-country journey. The report was set by a so-called hypermiler, a driver who practices superior driving methods geared toward optimizing gasoline effectivity. Hypermilers speed up easily and keep away from arduous braking. They let off the accelerator early so the automotive can coast to a gradual cease with out making use of the brakes, they usually drive as usually as attainable at speeds between 72 and 105 km per hour, the velocities at which a automotive is often best.
A driver not using such methods nonetheless can anticipate gasoline financial system as excessive as 4.06 L per 100 km from the most recent era of Prius fashions.
Toyota has superior the Prius’s hybrid expertise with every era, solidifying the automotive’s position as a frontrunner in gasoline effectivity and sustainability.
Milestone occasion attracts luminaries
Uchiyamada gave a quick speak on the IEEE Milestone occasion concerning the Prius’s growth course of and the challenges he confronted as chief G21 engineer. Different notable attendees had been Takeshi Uehara, president of Toyota’s power-train firm; Toshio Fukuda, 2020 IEEE president; Isao Shirakawa, IEEE Japan Council historical past committee chair; and Jun Sato, IEEE Nagoya Part chair.
A plaque recognizing the expertise is displayed on the entrance of the Toyota Technical Middle, which is inside strolling distance of the corporate’s headquarters. It reads:
“In 1997 Toyota Motor Company developed the world’s first mass-produced hybrid automobile, the Toyota Prius, which used each an inner combustion engine and two electrical motors. This automobile achieved revolutionary gasoline effectivity by recovering and reusing power beforehand misplaced whereas driving. Its success helped popularize hybrid autos internationally, superior the expertise important for electrical energy trains, contributed to the discount of CO2 emissions, and influenced the design of subsequent electrified autos.”
Administered by the IEEE Historical past Middle and supported by donors, the Milestone program acknowledges excellent technical developments worldwide. The IEEE Nagoya Part sponsored the nomination.