In the early Nineties, Toyota noticed that environmental consciousness and tighter emissions laws would form the way forward for the automotive trade. The firm aimed to create an eco-friendly, environment friendly automobile that will meet future requirements.
In 1997 Toyota launched the Prius to the Japanese market. The automobile 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.
Developing the Prius posed important technical and market challenges that included designing an environment friendly hybrid energy prepare, managing battery know-how, and overcoming shopper skepticism about combining an electrical drivetrain system with the usual gasoline-fueled energy prepare. Toyota persevered, nonetheless, and its instincts proved prescient and transformative.
“The Prius is not only the world’s first mass-produced hybrid car, but its technical and commercial success also spurred other automakers to accelerate hybrid vehicle development,” says IEEE Member Nobuo Kawaguchi, a professor within the computational science and engineering division at Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Engineering, in Japan. He can be secretary of the IEEE Nagoya Section. “The Prius helped shape the role of hybrid cars in today’s automotive market.”
The Prius was honored with an IEEE Milestone on 30 October throughout a ceremony held at firm headquarters in Toyota City, Japan.
The G21 challenge
The growth of the Prius started in 1993 with the G21 challenge, which centered on gasoline effectivity, low emissions, and affordability. According to a Toyota article detailing the challenge’s historical past, by 1997, Toyota engineers—together with Takeshi Uchiyamada, who has since change into generally known as the “father of the Prius”—have been glad that they had met the problem of attaining all three targets.
The first-generation Prius featured a compact design with aerodynamic effectivity. Its groundbreaking hybrid system enabled easy transitions between an electrical motor powered by a nickel–metallic hydride battery and an inner combustion engine fueled by gasoline.
The automobile’s design included regenerative braking within the power-train association to boost the automobile’s power effectivity. Regenerative braking captures the kinetic power usually misplaced as warmth when typical brake pads cease the wheels with friction. Instead, 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. Using the motor as a generator slows the automobile and converts the kinetic power into {an electrical} cost routed to the battery to recharge it.
“The Prius is not only the world’s first mass-produced hybrid car, but its technical and commercial success also spurred other automakers to accelerate hybrid vehicle development.” —Nobuo Kawaguchi, IEEE Nagoya Section secretary
According to the corporate’s “Harnessing Efficiency: A Deep Dive Into Toyota’s Hybrid Technology” article, a breakthrough was the Hybrid Synergy Drive, a system that enables the Prius to function in numerous modes—electrical solely, gasoline solely, or a mixture—relying on driving circumstances.
A key part Toyota engineers developed from scratch was the facility break up gadget, a planetary gear system that enables easy 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 information
Nearly 30 years after its industrial debut, the Prius stays an icon of environmental accountability mixed with technical innovation. It continues to be setting information for gasoline effectivity. When in July 2023 the newly launched 2024 Prius LE was pushed from Los Angeles to New York City, it consumed a miserly 2.52 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers in the course of the 5,150-km cross-country journey. The file was set by a so-called hypermiler, a driver who practices superior driving methods aimed toward optimizing gasoline effectivity. Hypermilers speed up easily and keep away from arduous braking. They let off the accelerator early so the automobile can coast to a gradual cease with out making use of the brakes, and so they drive as typically as potential at speeds between 72 and 105 km per hour, the velocities at which a automobile is usually best.
A driver not using such methods nonetheless can count on gasoline financial system as excessive as 4.06 L per 100 km from the newest era of Prius fashions.
Toyota has superior the Prius’s hybrid know-how with every era, solidifying the automobile’s position as a pacesetter in gasoline effectivity and sustainability.
Milestone occasion attracts luminaries
Uchiyamada gave a short discuss on the IEEE Milestone occasion concerning the Prius’s growth course of and the challenges he confronted as chief G21 engineer. Other notable attendees have 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 Section chair.
A plaque recognizing the know-how is displayed on the entrance of the Toyota Technical Center, which is inside strolling distance of the corporate’s headquarters. It reads:
“In 1997 Toyota Motor Corporation developed the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius, which used both an internal combustion engine and two electric motors. This vehicle achieved revolutionary fuel efficiency by recovering and reusing energy previously lost while driving. Its success helped popularize hybrid vehicles internationally, advanced the technology essential for electric power trains, contributed to the reduction of CO2 emissions, and influenced the design of subsequent electrified vehicles.”
Administered by the IEEE History Center and supported by donors, the Milestone program acknowledges excellent technical developments worldwide. The IEEE Nagoya Section sponsored the nomination.