Endurance racing is one of the most influential series today, and Toyota Motor Corp. holds the lead this season – while reportedly testing technology to be used in the 2016 Prius hybrid.
The Japanese automaker is racing a Toyota TS040, which the upcoming Prius will draw on to make the hybrid more fuel-efficient and powerful.
The company has not disclosed exactly what parts will be used, but they’re said to be mostly electronic-related, such as microchips and microcontrollers.
According to the Toyota Motorsport GmbH president Yoshiaki Kinoshita, the automaker is working on developing silicon carbide semiconductors. Adding carbon will make the semiconductors more efficient and responsive. The size of the part will also be reduced by 80 per cent, so that the vehicle could have more space and less weight.
Fuel efficiency was the key strategy for winning races in which refueling stops add time to the running clock. The 2014 TS040 got a 25-per-cent bump in fuel economy over last year’s TS030 model. The automaker was also able to increase power from 750 to 1,000 horsepower.
On top of that, Toyota has developed an all-wheel-drive hybrid drivetrain, which suggests that the next Prius will get an AWD variant.
This does not mean that the Prius will turn into a street-legal sports car – it will simply become more fuel-efficient and powerful. In order to make sure the transition from circuit to street is smooth, Toyota engineers work on the hybrid race car program for six months, and are then reassigned to Toyota City, where hybrid car development takes place.
