How can they improve the fuel economy of the next generation Pruis?

Volt/Ampera pricing seems to be joke... at least in Poland. Most hybrids are priced premium, but what about Yaris Hybrid (for US it is more/less Prius C like car, with the same drivetrain)?
If you compare prices of Yaris Hybrid, Yaris 100 HP petrol and Yaris Diesel you will find that Hybrid version is cheaper than Diesel. In Poland all 290 units for our market are already sold. It's more than total Prii sold in 2011.

Not all models are sold by Toyota across all EU countries. We don't have Camry for example. The biggest one (except LC/Hilux) in Avensis. No higher models. If you wan't more you have to take Lexus IS.
But even when they don't want to sell it to certain market (for example UK's RHD cars are not the best options for LHD part of Europe) they have to certify them among all EU regulations. Even if the will never sell the car outside UK. If certified in UK it is also certified in all other countries by default.

 

Not at all. You will be disappointed in 2015 because you'll never see a diesel Prius from Toyota. Toyota is gradually abandoning diesel development and focusing gasoline hybrid technology. Like it or not, diesel is an obsolete dead end technology. Its nanoparticle emission cannot be cured - which makes it badly carcinogenic because DPF has absolutely no effect on nano sized soot particles - and inherently high NOx emission require aftertreatment which is also pain in the nice person.
And no, don't beleive in so called "clean diesel" BS. There is no such thing in the reality, this is just a deceiving marketing term.

 

I'm hoping for the 125 mpg Volvo V60 Diesel/Hybrid/EV AWD in 2015.

But I'll be going plug in of some kind in 2015 so what Toyota does to get the 2015 hybrid version to 60 mpg is a bit immaterial to me.

EPA seems fooled since they list the emissions of the current auto Diesels as equal to the gas engines.

What Volvo did with the Diesel V60 seems to be the perfect vehicle. Those are just hitting the road in Europe this year.

 

"Diesel would currently be the only way for 2015 Prius to be a 60 mpg car."

Current Prius ICE max efficiency is about 38%. Toyota has near term DI engines at 41%, and a later engine at 45%.
Assuming all else equal, this means the ICE will improve 41/38 and then 45/38 meaning 7.9% and then 18.4%

The 18.4% improvement in the ICE is a 60 mpg car if it is not a duplication of HSD efficiency.

 

Current auto Diesels are 50% efficiency.

 

Hogwash

 

Hope is one thing and reality is another.
Btw your Volvo is a plugin hybrid, so it's pointless to directly compare with a HEV. Moreover, from 1 price of V60 you can buy almost 2 Prii.

In case you haven't noticed, usbseawolf2000 has already linked the most likely solution:

Green Car Congress: Toyota targeting thermal efficiency of more than 45% for next-generation gasoline engines for hybrids

45% thermal efficiency is way higher than the best passenger diesel car engine can get today, without the even officially carcinogenic nature of diesel. With this engine the HEV as well as the PHEV version will most likely kick your diesel's @ss.

No, they are just meet the requirements. This doesn't mean that diesels would equal to Prius in terms of emissions.

 

That's easily and quickly verifiably NOT true.

Diesel engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You confused large marine diesels with the ones used in cars. And in a non-hybrid passenger vehicle which frequenly goes in the city as well, average efficiency is always much lower than peak, so in terms of real or observable effenciency diesels is behind the best hybrids.

 

Which has this to say about current common rail Diesels. You may not have read the entire article.

Modern turbo-diesel engines are using electronically controlled, common-rail fuel injection, that increases the efficiency up to 50% with the help of geometrically variable turbo-charging system; this also increases the engines' torque at low engine speeds (1200-1800RPM).

But a Diesel hybrid would be the most efficient with current engine and battery technology which is what will be applied to 2015 Prius. Toyota may go another route to get the 2015 hybrid Prius to 60 mpg but Diesel engine would be one way to do it. Pretty much swapping out the current gas engine for a modern turbo Diesel would get the Prius to 60 mpg.

 

Link to a CAR with that engine.

Table of SFC minimums in different applications, courtesy of Wikipedia

PS, a little bit of arithmetic would go a long way for you:
Diesel has about 38 kwh/gallon of energy;
If 50% of the energy could be sent to the driveshaft, that would be 19 kwh a gallon.
Highway EPA tests for ~ 3000 lb cars consume about 250 wh/mile from the driveshaft

Meaning 76 mpg. Seen many of those at fueleconomy.gov ?

 

2015 Prius IV

 

I don't think so. It would get a non-functional/unreliable vehicle. Those diesels can't handle frequent start-stops, it either simply wouldn't work or results catastrophic fuel economy and emissions. This is much more complicated than you think.

 

PS has yet to grasp that diesel ICE and HSD hybrids have overlapping efficiencies.

 

I'll take that as acknowledgement that you do not know Wth you are yapping about.

 

Would a small (wind) turbine that harnesses the high speed airflow from some point in the slipstream of the car when traveling at speed help to recharge the batteries? Or would the additional drag make it pointless?

I thought I heard that Ford was looking into this possibility (but I can't find any reference to it with a quick google search).

 

It's already been done successfully by Puegot, Volvo. Your imagined issues with Diesel hybrids have been replaced by on the road facts.

 

Compare the fuel economy of those cars to a Prius -- all on the same test cycle.

For your edification, Euro NEDC results are around 15-20% higher than EPA IIRC.
While you are at it, look at the prices.

Read this review of the Peugeot hybrid 3008.
104 grams/km CO2. More carbon emissions than the Prius. About 5000 English pounds (~ USD 7500) more than the straight diesel model.

Diesel hybrids are stillborn. Get over it.

 

129 mpg for the Volvo Diesel since you insist on a comparison but I only used the examples to demonstrate that claims you could not use Diesels in hybrids has already been proven wrong so all the imagined problems noted by the arm chair engineers were proven wrong.

 

No.
That is a plug - in.

No one ever said a diesel ICE could not be used in place of a petrol ICE. We said it would be stupid. As you can see if you bother to read, the ICE switch does not improve carbon emissions compared to a Prius HEV but does cost a lot more money, on the order of USD $10,000 more in the UK.

One more time, just for you PS:
Peugeot 3008 hybrid diesel VS Prius HEV:
Worse (~ 5%) carbon emissions, $10k USD more expensive to buy the Peugeot in the UK market.

 

Actually someone said exactly that.

All the misconceptions proven wrong by current on the road Diesel hybrids.

Regarding this topic, a Diesel Prius hybrid would likely yield 60 mpg so that is certainly the easiest way for Toyota to get a 60 mpg Prius in 2015.