Toyota to introduce minivan with hybrid engine in Jan.
.c Kyodo News Service
NAGOYA, May 1 (Kyodo) -- Toyota Motor Corp. will take the wraps off the world's first minivan with a hybrid engine next January, Toyota officials said Saturday.
The new Estima powered by a hybrid propulsion mechanism will come equipped with either a 2.2-liter or 2.4-liter engine, the officials said.
Toyota has been marketing the Prius hybrid car since December 1997 as the world's first automaker to mass-manufacture a hybrid motor vehicle.
A hybrid vehicle has two power propulsion units -- an internal combustion engine and an electric motor -- on top of a rechargeable battery. Such vehicles provide extremely high fuel efficiency as well as low emissions of environmentally harmful gases.
Earlier this year, Nissan Motor Co. unveiled its own hybrid car, the Tino. Honda Motor Co. is scrambling to release a hybrid vehicle later in the year.
Toyota's Prius 1.5-liter sedan jolted the auto industry, as it has a fuel economy of 28 kilometers per liter of gasoline -- more than twice that of conventional gasoline cars with a 1.5-liter engine.
A hybrid vehicle's battery stores electricity from a generator that converts the kinetic energy from the wheels into electricity whenever the car decelerates.
Hybrid vehicles are powered solely by electricity when the driver starts or when the car is crawling in traffic, as low-speed driving based on a gasoline engine tends to undermine fuel economy.
When cruising along highways at stable high speeds, hybrids are powered mainly by the gasoline engine, while power from the electric motor is also drawn on when the car accelerates.
The hybrid propulsion mechanism for the new Estima will provide greater power than the Prius, due to a variety of innovations Toyota has added to its motor and a special transmission mechanism.
Toyota has decided to make its second hybrid vehicle a minivan rather than a sedan, as ''releasing a second hybrid car at this stage would end up making it and the Prius compete with each other,'' a Toyota board member said.
Toyota earlier decided to put the Prius sedan on the U.S. and European market, starting next year.
Japan's biggest automaker also plans to take the wraps off a hybrid sport-utility vehicle during the Tokyo Motor Show slated for later this year, the officials said. |
