I thought they originally didn't do this because of a lot of line noise b/c of the voltage differences. Maybe they found a way to work around that now?

It would be cool to park outside, come back, and find you have a charged battery, though I think it would take a long time for solar panels alone to charge it up.

Toyota is speaking of the future when the solar irradiation is about 3x today's, and collector efficiency approaches 50%.

Not tomorrow, or the day after that ...

Well, it might trickle-charge the HV battery. A very slow trickle.

So, the differences to the current Auris sheet-metal are: new front and headlamps, side indicators in the mirror housings, new rear light clusters, and a new rear bumper with aerocorners containing the rear reflectors. It's a facelift. The side view makes it obvious:

Old:



New:



I'm disappointed. I was hoping for a real diesel-beater economy car, not a hot hatch. 18" wheels? Seriously? Sub 100g/km? Prius achieves 89g/km on the 15" wheels.

Still, listing it as a 'concept' leaves hope that the low-spec version is achievable. I want to find out once and for all just how much more the hybrid drive really costs, and how that compares to a diesel.

It's a concept - remember the huge chrome wheels that were shown on the Insight concept car?

The real thing will almost undoubtedly come with light 15" wheels.

I'm curious as to how much storage space is lost with the HSD compared to the regular car, as well as how much weight is added.

I still dream of a sub 2500lb car with the HSD drivetrain and a decent suspension setup. Unfortunately, it appears that the weight of the current Auris is very similar to the Prius at 2750-3200lbs depending on whether you get the gas or diesel engine so I'd expect the hybrid to be similar to the diesel version in weight.

The current solar roof on the Prius is about 80w. If you multiplied the space by two and the efficiency by three (about the most I can ever imagine in the next five years) then you would have almost 500w. That could recharge the (current) HV pack in a few hours and a plug in pack in a day or two of full sun.

The above is obviously a pipe dream because a factor of six is going to be quite hard to get.... but maybe in 10 years????

Very optimistic.

The very best panels are only about 3x more efficient than the one currently used on the Prius. Unless there's a major breakthrough, I'd find it highly unrealistic that affordable panels get any more than 25% more efficient even after 5 years.

I am blue-skying it and dreaming of a small, relatively light two door
commuter. Something roughly similar to 2-door Yaris, CityCar, or even
the old Insight I. :cheer2:

In the pictures Mike Dimmick posted, I note the concept car has a HybridSD
badge on the front fenders. I'll bet there are positioning pins on the badges,
and matching holes in the fenders. Drat!

Can someone please explain to me why they dont sell these in the US.

I would really love to buy a deisel-plug-in-hybrid from toyota. id settly for a gas one, i know the plug in prius is coming out but i would rather get this.

Yes, TFA says so.

Well, all bespoke means is custom tailored. They do look more aero than your typical 18" wheel (look pretty similar to the '10 Prius 17s, to my memory).

Anyway, as I said earlier, it's a concept car which usually comes with large shiny wheels, so I wouldn't expect these to carry over to production.

Likewise, don't expect it to carry over to production! Hopefully the vile interior is also a 'concept'. Yuck.

What could Toyota not leave out in a production model? Probably the satellite navigation system, which would be required - I think - for additional displays such as the Gen 2-like Energy display shown in the video that Toyota released. Or, they could choose to keep the HSI-like gauge which replaces the tachometer of the standard Auris:



(cropped from here, 2.4MB jpeg)

The left-hand dial appears to say CHARGE | ECO | POWER. 240km/h on the speedometer is a bit optimistic!

I don't see fuel economy/consumption or battery level gauges there, though. There is a temperature gauge for some reason.

omg that is discusting

but i see the gen 2 MFD back with the animated screen...

And have you seen the price? Autocar is saying this will cost £20,000 in the UK - that's Prius T4 money! Why not just buy the Prius?

The other interesting aspact is that the Cd is quoted as just 0.28. Only 0.02 higher than the Prius. Whilst I like the one box shape of the Prius I know many don't. But it does make you wonder.

Not Impressed

Put the HSD into the MATRIX, who cares if it's a 0.35 drag co, I want something that drives like a Matrix.

(end rant)

It probably would cost that with the horrible interior and the forced Sat Nav option. I'm hoping for a massively despec'd version.

Cd is one of those figures like engine power and torque that are practically meaningless without other figures. The drag equation is:



(from [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_coefficient"]Drag coefficient - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame])

RHO is the density of the fluid (air), v is the velocity (speed), Cd is the drag coefficient - and A is the cross-section area of the object.

The current Auris is 1,760mm wide and 1,515mm high, compared to the Prius at 1,745mm wide and 1,490mm high. The actual cross-section areas are smaller because the cars are narrower at the roof than at the widest point, and the listed height includes the ride height. Still, even if the Auris had the same Cd the Prius would still have less drag due to the smaller area. (Mirrors aren't included in either set of dimensions.)

A Vauxhall/Opel Insignia is claimed to have a 0.27 Cd, but is quite a bit wider at 1,856mm and taller at 1,498mm, so has higher drag than either Toyota, I think.

The improvement in aero on the Auris hybrid, given what they claimed for the Prius, must be down to the sharp corners on the new bumpers, and possibly that the grille is a bit more restrictive than before.