Tag Archives: Toyota
Mazda And Toyota Partnering On Hybrid Technology
Mazda Motor Corporation has not dabbled much in hybrid technologies. The Japanese automotive company was interested more in start-stop systems and lighter materials. Now Mazda and Toyota have formed a partnership on hybrid technology. Toyota will supply the technology and components to Mazda for hybrid vehicles. The Toyota and Mazda partnership will result in a hybrid vehicle in 2013.
The control system, motor, and main components that are used in the Toyota Prius will be supplied for a Mazda vehicle. Mazda plans to sell tens of thousands of hybrid cars. A hybrid Mazda3 will be the first vehicle to come out of the partnership. Mazda plans to spend about 98 billion yen ($1.2 billion) on research and development in 2010. Toyota will be spending about 800 billion yen ($9.9 billion) during the same time period on research and development.
Earlier this month Ford Motor Company announced that they will be investing $500 million in hybrid vehicles. General Motors will be investing $336 million in a new Michigan facility to build Chevy Volt electric cars.
Categories Mazda Motor Corporation, Mazda3, Toyota
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Toyota To Start Selling The Prius Plug-In Hybrid In 2011
Toyota announced earlier today that they plan to start selling a plug-in Prius hybrid in 2011. Toyota is currently the biggest gas-electric hybrid vehicle manufacturing company. However Toyota was never big on plug-in hybrids up until now. Hybrid technology will be added to all of their cars by 2020.
General Motors plans to build at least 60,000 Chevy Volt hybrid vehicles every year starting in 2010. Ford, Volkswagen, and Nissan plans to mass-produce fully electric cars in 2010 too. Toyota EVP Takeshi Uchiyamada said that the car company was waiting until 2011 to begin selling plug-in hybrids because they wanted to hear feedback from users.
The plug-in Prius vehicle is the first vehicle made by Toyota that will use a lithium-ion battery. The Prius hybrid vehicle will have the ability to travel at 23.4 kms. (14.5 miles) on a single charge before the gas-electric hybrid system takes over. The Prius will have 134 miles per gallon. Charge tie for the plug-in system is about 100 minutes.
Categories Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota, Toyota Prius
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Toyota Humanoid Robot Can Run Faster Than Most Humans
In the video demo above, Toyota showcases one of their latest robots. The robot is in the form of a human and has the ability to run at 7km/hr (4.35MPH). This is even faster than Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot, which can run at 6km/hr (3.72MPH).
Toyota’s robot prototype is 130cm tall and weighs 110 lbs. The Toyota robot’s legs have 7 degrees of freedom and uses real-time methods for balance control. The robot takes a step every 340 milliseconds. If you’re not a fan of watching robots getting pushed around, don’t watch the video.
Categories Toyota
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