Toyota Motor Corporation is set to raise the fuel-efficiency bar in the automobile industry as it has announced plans to release a new engine for its vehicles in a few months.
To many new vehicle buyers, fuel efficiency is usually an important consideration. This is because the less fuel used the more money saved. Unarguably, Toyota ranks highest among top fuel-efficient brands; it offers many vehicles with impressive fuel economy.
Toyota is reported to have said the new engine was part of a five-year overhaul to make its vehicles more fuel-efficient and sportier to drive.
The new engine is coming with a feature called Dynamic Force that delivers 18 per cent better fuel economy and 18 per cent faster acceleration when combined with a continuously variable transmission.
When mated to a hybrid system, the engine gets nine per cent better fuel economy and 18 per cent better speed off the line.
The new 2.0-litre engine achieves thermal efficiency rates of 40 to 41 per cent, compared with 37 to 38 per cent in the previous-generation engines.
The first Dynamic Force engine was the 2.5-litre four-cylinder that appeared last year in the redesigned Camry sedan.
Toyota said its engineers achieved the improvements through several tweaks, noting that they increased fuel-air turbulence in the cylinders for a faster burn.
Giving details about the new technology, Toyota said it was done using a technology typically reserved for Formula One racing engines known as laser cladding.
The result, according to the automaker, is a valve seat with a widened valve angle, which it believes is the first for mass-production cars.
“Other gains came from introducing direct fuel injection, optimising valve-timing control and using an electric water pump to reduce mechanical friction,” it stated.
By 2023, the new engines and transmissions are expected to power 80 per cent of new Toyota vehicles.
