Toyota Estima Hybrid Sums Up Future of Vehicle Technology at Tokyo Motor Show.Business Editors & Automotive Writers NOTE TO MEDIA: Photo is available in a Smart News Release(TM) on Business Wire's Home Page at www.businesswire.com and at www.newstream.com TOKYO--(AutomotiveWire)--Oct. 24, 2001 Toyota Motor Corporation's mass-produced and marketed gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles This is a list of hybrid vehicles in chronological order of production: Early designs
The Estima Hybrid, sold in Japan since June, is the world's first hybrid minivan and first mass-produced hybrid 4-wheel drive vehicle. Advanced "brake by wire" technology is at the heart of a revolutionary vehicle dynamics management system that provides road hugging stability and sporty agility unheard of in a minivan. In addition, the Estima's hybrid powerplant can generate up to 1,500 watts of auxiliary 100-volt AC, making it ideal for emergency vehicle or mobile office applications. Telematics and ITS (Intelligent Transport System) functions add safety, convenience and entertainment benefits. Developed over a mere two and half year period, everything about the Estima Hybrid is new, except its name and body shape. Even its hybrid system is a departure from that used in the Prius. Instead of a planetary gear, the Estima Hybrid uses a CVT CVT Continuously Variable Transmission (automotive, sport, utility & hybrid vehicles) CVT Center for Victims of Torture CVT Continuing Vocational Training CVT Certified Veterinary Technician CVT Control Value Table (continuously variable transmission The continuously variable transmission (CVT) is a transmission in which the ratio of the rotational speeds of two shafts, as the input shaft and output shaft of a vehicle or other machine, can be varied continuously within a given range, providing an infinite number of ) in a compact front transaxle trans·ax·le n. An automotive part that combines the transmission and the differential and is used on vehicles with front-wheel drive. [trans(mission) + axle.] to transmit main motor energy, and adds a rear transaxle which combines a second motor and differential gear in a single unit, for a lightweight, compact structure that enables 4-wheel drive without a driveshaft. The Estima Hybrid can cruise 1,000 kilometers on one tank of gas, for double the fuel efficiency of Japan's 2010 standards, and one quarter the HC and NOx levels of Japan's latest regulations. The most recent hybrid to appear in Toyota showrooms is the Crown Royal, introduced in Japan in August. This luxury sedan employs Toyota's THS-M "mild hybrid" system, a simpler alternative that improves fuel consumption by about 15%. Toyota's latest Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle, the FCHV-5, re-forms clean hydrocarbon fuel (CHF CHF In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Swiss Franc. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) to make hydrogen. Toyota plans a limited introduction of an improved FCHV-4, which runs on pure hydrogen, to the Japanese market in 2003. Toyota sees potential worldwide sales for its expanding range of hybrid vehicles reaching around 300,000 per year by 2005. Note: A Photo is available at URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.102401/bb1 |
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