The next generation Toyota Prius, set to debut as a 2016 model, will
utilize technology from Toyota's Le Mans hybrid race car. The Prius may also get an all-wheel-drive option as well.
Toyota
may not have won Le Mans, but it's currently holding the most points in
the manufacturers' rankings in the FIA World Endurance Championships
(of which Le Mans is just one stop on the roster). Speaking with Automotive News,
Toyota Motorsport GmbH president Yoshiaki Kinoshita confirmed that the
upcoming Prius revamp will indeed draw on goodies developed from the Toyota TS040 race car.
The parts in question are made of silicon rather than
steel, Kinoshita revealed, indicating that semiconductors, controllers
and methods of stemming losses in the electric drivetrain, rather than
any mechanical bits, are the real leap forward in technology.
Fuel management has always been the Prius's forte, but it
was also a key strategy to winning races in which refueling stops add
precious seconds to the clock. The 2014 TS040 racer saw a massive 25
percent bump in fuel economy over last year's TS030 while at the same
time upping power from 750 to 1000hp. An all-wheel-drive hybrid
drivetrain was tossed in as well, leading to hints that the next Prius
would have an AWD variant.
To ensure the flow of technology from circuit to street,
Toyota engineers work on the hybrid race car program for six-months, and
are then reassigned to Toyota City where hybrid road car development
takes place.
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