Featured 2 New Toyota Hybrids To Be Revealed May 18

The upcoming Corolla Hot Hatch as a hybrid...

 

venza seemed like a heavy beast, i wonder if there will be weight reduction

 

Mmmm...Platinum....

 

That would really surprise me. Every manufacturer has been investing resources into making amazing next generation I4 engines, apart from maybe Subaru and Mazda. I don't think I would expect Toyota to spend extra on allowing for a V layout, especially following the success of their dynamic force I4.

 

When I used to follow hybrid sales, I remember the LS600h was a disaster with less than 20 sold per month.

Bob Wilson

 

My wife’s Venza was about 175 lbs more than the Camry Hybrid and it was much wider, >3 inches, and taller, ~5.5 inches, than the HyCam. She loved that car but I thought the ride and road noise was a little crude. It had gobs of room in the hatch area.


iPad ? Pro

 

They don't have to use atkinson cams in these, and lately it seems like everyone can get >100hp/L without a turbo.

That applied to anything 2L and up would be enough for respectable handling in a loaded minivan even before you add electric drive via powersplit.

 

Well I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse of minivans lately. I'm certain <1.99999L models exist for tax reasons in other markets, but I don't know if any carmakers are getting any benefit from having a "world model" minivan.

Okay, let's look at a 2.5L direct injected rig, theoretically capable of 250hp as is. Now put it on a hybrid power split device with the same range of strengths Toyota has done lately- maybe another 60-70hp at the wheels? That is quite competitive with the 6-cyl models you're describing.

FWD Venza in lower trims was a decent value wagon. Up-trim AWD Venza was pointless once you put it up against an Outback; the Subie outmatched it in nearly every way.

 

The RAV4 made it from ~24mpg on the old (2013ish) 2.4L engine to ~36mpg on the new 2.5 HSD, according to fuelly.com. Granted this is two different crossover bodies vs. a minivan, but I see enough improvement in that RAV4 to think that the same powertrain would do rather well in a future Sienna.

I still say anything over 17" is strictly for appearance. And they came up with a nifty puffy overbuilt aesthetic with that last-generation Venza; this was not lost on me. I figured they were aping the Magnum. But it had a real price in MPG, parking maneuverability and tire replacement costs, and didn't do anything to improve traction for the AWD variant.

 

Hopefully direct plus port injection. Seems like a lot of these mpg improving measures come at the expense of gummed up engines.

 

Oh I think that's a given now. It works, it doesn't cost much to add nor to operate a port or throttlebody injector for washdown. The only questions are in tuning it to operate effectively and not wastefully, given that they can't do much in the way of sensory instrumentation. The ECU has to keep the buildup at bay by dead reckoning.

I have the general feeling that everyone has more or less figured this out, it's just a matter of eventually including it as cheaply as possible.

 

Tell that to recent CRV owners. Honda forgot to include port injection and their tuning has resulted in gas in the oil so that the consensus is now 3k miles between oil changes for urban use.

 

Isn't this like launching a cruise ship during a Hurricane?
Seems like pretty bad timing to be launching two new Hybrids. Gas prices are low, Covid-19 crisis I think has peoples voluntary interest in buying a vehicle almost non-existent

The past decade IMO Toyota has struggled with "how" they want to build and market their Hybrids, outside of just the standard Prius itself.
10 years back, I heard the goal of Toyota was to offer a Hybrid model for every ICE model they had.
Then you had the seeming abandonment of that concept, with the birth of the "Prius Family", which now has been killed off like characters in a CLUE game.
Now it seems Toyota is gravitating back to their original approach which is to offer alternative Hybrid models for existing ICE models.

Not saying these two new Hybrids might not be great.
I'm really glad to see Toyota still is supporting and promoting the Hybrid platform.

But if it was at all possible, I think I'd delay release of any alternative models right now.
Gasoline right now is as cheap as I can remember in over a decade. And right now? I think if you have reliable transportation, you probably aren't prioritizing getting new transportation.

However, I'll watch the reveal with interest. And I hope for success.
I did say the same thing for the Prius V and Prius c.

 

That's called rhetoric and it "seems" you are happy to pass it along. Ugh. Stepping back to look at the big picture, we can confirm Toyota has stayed true to their overall effort to phaseout traditional vehicles and now is the ideal time to make that commitment clear.

Why wouldn't an automaker take a next step at a time when the entire world is forced to re-evaluate anyway? Change is necessary. That should be obvious. It would be bizarre not to take advantage of the opportunity.

With regard to this upcoming reveal. Think about where the market was heading before the pandemic. Sedans were falling out of favor and the industry required platforms which could easily accommodate a decent size battery-pack. Seeing a new vehicle emerge that fits in between Camry and RAV4 makes a lot of sense. It would start out as a hybrid while offering a very easy path to plug-in hybrid. That's sensible business.

In other words, Toyota has weathered many hurricanes already. This is what being prepared for the big one looks like. What other automaker is so well positioned to shed their old traditional vehicles?

 

A dynamic force V6 was introduced alongside the four for the Camry.

Rumor also had the the next Tundra getting the multistage hybrid, with the aforementioned V6, possibly with turbo. Trucks were probably the original application of that system.

Ford and GM managed to cut hundreds of pounds off their larger models in the past couple generations. Toyota should be able to do the same.

The investment into development and manufacture have already been made. Delaying longer could cost them more than releasing at this time.

Gas prices in the US were relatively low before the oil market crash, and it didn't hurt Rav4 hybrid sales. i expect Toyota to do the same with the Venza and Sienna as they did for the Rav, make the hybrid AWD only. Then they can hide the hybrid cost, and offer it as a no-brainer upgrade.

 

Not to stray to far off the topic, but Toyota is still pushing the hydrogen Marai. Next years model has a more sporty sleek design similar to the Tesla. It seems that Toyota is all over the place and trying to see what will actually take hold in the market.