Spotlight on the new full hybrids – made in a plant near you soon!
Posted by Colin Hensley on September 29, 2009 in 360° approach, Clean Operations, Green Technologies
Sunday saw the closing of the doors of IAA in Frankfurt for another two years. It’s probably one of the biggest motor shows in the world. I don’t know if it has the largest number of visitors, but it is definitely, geographically, huge! I just measured it on Google Earth (50° 6′40.39″N, 8°38′43.52″E), and it’s more than a kilometre across, which goes a long way to explaining why my legs still ache following our 3 days of activities. Anyway, it was a very exciting show for us, as we had two cars on the Toyota stand and one on the Lexus stand that were being seen for the first time ever, anywhere!. Perhaps the best part of this is that all three are hybrids. As most people don’t get the chance to go on the IAA exercise programme, let me just do a bit of product PR, and give a few details on these cars.
Our locally produced highlight is the Auris HSD Full Hybrid Concept. It’ll be made in the TMUK plant starting next year. I hope to have the chance to visit the plant during the preparations for the production. After visiting Tsutsumi earlier in the year, I can’t wait to see one of our European Sustainable Plants producing this new full hybrid.
The Prius Plug-in Hybrid Concept also proved to be of great interest to the visitors. Our target for CO2 emissions for this car is under 60g/km with a 20km range. One of my colleagues who drive the car recently in Japan raved about the seamless acceleration up to100km/hr in EV mode.
On the Lexus stand we had the LF-Ch concept, which was displayed in an amazing yellow colour. This is the first concept in the C-segment, and should be a stylish and practical option for people.
Finally, I’d just like to say congratulations to the source of many great blog topics, Karen from TMUK, who just celebrated her marriage to Darren; have a great eco-life together.
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Comments(1)Out and about in the new Prius – finally!
Posted by Colin Hensley on July 13, 2009 in Green Technologies
HUD & ACC in action on the French Autoroute
Four months ago, I was writing about the new Prius and my desire to get into one for a drive. Thanks to Johan and Dirk, I managed to do so last weekend. I previously had a Prius for a couple of years, so I was looking forward to giving the new model a go.
From the outside you are left no doubt that it’s a Prius, though I think it has really been brought right up to date, with a slightly edgier look. When you get in, the only thing that was really familiar was the voice of ‘Annie’ (this was what our kids christened the voice of the SatNav system.) the new interior was very much to my taste. But enough of me, I decided to ask the kids what they thought of it. Tim said, “it was really comfy and big and not noisy so I could hear the music really well.” Katie’s opinion was “it was cool and quiet and a bit like a spaceship!” (she’s a big fan of Dr Who)
So, there you go, it was fully approved by my toughest car critics. From my perspective, I was really impressed by the car. The driving was really effortless, we went about 800 km during the weekend, and between the lack of noise and the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), it was possible to get out of the car at the end of the journey feeling in pretty good form. Very importantly, the fuel consumption was also great, and I only had to fill up once. Apart from the ACC, my favourite new feature is the head-up display. There floating in front of me was the speed and my directions – no need to take my eyes off the road – neat, and safe rolled into one.
Hybrid Synergy Drive – from vision to reality
Posted by Colin Hensley on June 15, 2009 in Green Technologies
As you know, last week I was in Japan on a trip we organised for corporate media to give them a real genchi genbutsu experience of our full hybrids. The star of the tour was the new Prius, and we were able to hear from company executives including Uchiyamada (Chief Engineer of the first Prius) about almost everything, from the styling to the development, right through to the manufacturing. We even had the chance to be the first group to visit the battery factory of PEVE a joint venture of Panasonic Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation.
Solar Panel check
The most impressive part of the trip for me was the visit to the Tsutsumi plant. This is one of the plants where the Prius is being made. There are two mixed lines and Prius is made on both. One has a takt time of 57 seconds, the other 66 seconds. The takt time is the length of time that is allowed for each of the action on the line. One action may be fitting the bumper, or laying out a part of the wire harness. Ultimately, the takt time is also the time between cars coming off the line. So about every minute a car drives off each line. I’ve attached a few of the photos I took, but they don’t quite convey the energy of the line or the incredible focus and dedication of the Team Members.
Tsutsumi is also one of our Sustainable Plants. The plant slogan is “Eco-cars are the product of Eco-plants and Eco-people” and they really do live this every day. For example, there’s a massive array of solar panels on the roof and the building is painted with catalytic paint that removes Nox from the air. Unfortunately, it was miserably grey and raining the day we visited, so there wasn’t too much power being generated. I’ll try to persuade one of my colleagues in Environmental Affairs to write a bit more about this plant in the near future.
Finally, the Toyota Technology Challenge, <drum roll please> and the winners were “Team Torpedo” of Queen Elisabeth Grammar School in the in the solar power competition, and “Team Mafia” from Beechwood Park School in the PIC microcontroller category. Well done to both teams!
“…to the birthplace of the Prius”
Posted by Colin Hensley on June 03, 2009 in 360° approach, Green Technologies
By the time this gets onto the blog I will be in Japan working on the final preparations for a Hybrid Experience Trip that we have organised to help increase knowledge of our full hybrid technology and its history. While I am very happy that we will have the chance to explain this to the journalists who are attending, I am also really excited to be able to participate myself. It will be great to hear more about our technology directly from the Top Management who are responsible for it, and especially exciting to get the chance to go to the Tsutsumi plant, where the Prius is built.
I have been involved with Prius for more than 10 years. In 1999 I accompanied Uchiyamada-san, now Executive Vice-President at TMC, to the Royal Society in London, where he received an award for his work on the original Prius. So it will be quite reminiscent to hear him speak again 10 years on and more than one and a quarter million sales later.
As for the plant, well, it is one of the flagship sustainable plants, with an amazing array of activities going on. These include a massive array of solar panels, wastewater treatments, tree planting, and photo-catalytic paint on the outside of the building, which breaks down NOx. The great thing for me is that these activities still proceed at full speed, even though the plant has reached full capacity and beyond…
I’ll do my best to get a few pictures of the most interesting things, and post them either here or directly in a Tweet (@toyota_europe)
Prius – technology for a reason
Posted by Colin Hensley on March 14, 2009 in Green Technologies
As I said last week, it was great to have the chance to launch the new Prius in Europe last week in Geneva. I’d like to take a few lines now to describe some of the impressive technical achievements that we see gathered in the new Prius.
Of course, the powertrain is the tour-de-force of the car, a full series/parallel hybrid offering EV drive and very low CO2 in the combined cycle. It’s also very widely covered in various media, so let me move on to a couple of other features.
The solar roof that powers a fan to bring in cooler outside air is a feature that is proving to be a much talked about addition. Of course, it’s especially interesting for the countries where the sun really shines a lot (from my seat in Belgium, I think I can still just about remember what the sun looks like.) The system not only makes the car cooler when you get in, it also then means you need less energy to cool down the car to a completely comfortable temperature.
The touch tracer display is also a new feature, this one with a safety benefit. As you move your thumb (or finger) over the buttons on the steering wheel, you can actually see in the display which button it is, and so easily can do what you want to do. This means your eyes spend less time off the road. We know from our accident studies in the past that lack of recognition of a dangerous situation is a critical cause of accidents, so every extra millisecond you have can make a difference. For similar reasons, the Prius also has a head-up display showing the information you want to know as you drive, such as your speed, or where to turn when you have a navigation system.
I’m really looking forward to having a chance to drive the Prius, so I guess I’ll have to start begging Dirk (my colleague who arranged the iQ) as soon as we have the cars here.
