Casual curiousity - would it be an engineering nightmare to design a hybrid Tacoma? 4WD?
I've got an '01 4 cyl, stick shift Taco that's been treating me fine - mid 20s on the highway, and not much less in town.
I'm not complaining.
But being given a choice, if the power was there, it'd be nice to consider a hybrid to park beside my wife's Prius.

 

Don't be surprized if you see one within 5 years.

 

I think it would be cheaper and probally as efficant to do a diesel swap.... also much easier...

 

i lean the other way and would like to see one with a 460 stuffed under the hood

 

a 460?? Personally I would choose the new chevy 8.1.... but that would require a new frame, running gear, etc... probally easier to put a toy cab on a chev frame...

 

FIVE YEARS! comeon they have a hybrid 4runner. even a 4 year old could take the guts out of a 4runner and put it in the taco.

if gas prices keep heading in the same direction id expect it in 2 or less.

hell i thought i remembered a news story that said toyota would be offering a hybrid option for EVERY one of there viehicals in like 3-5 years.

now we just need to convince them to let us plug in the hybrids to the grid so i can charge its onboard batteries off the grid and use even less fuel.

 

A hybrid 4runner, where and what planet?

 

Hybrids have way overrated mileage benefits mostly due to a failure to add the additional cost of batteries which negates the benefits. The biggest killer is metallic weight. Only very small, mostly light weight plastic autos make good hybrids, or also bicycles. A bicycle 'hybrid' currently gets 180 mpg equivalent. I crunched the numbers once. But larger hybrids are mostly marketing deception. Too difficult to overcome the physics law of inertia.

The better solution is dual ownership. One fun SUV. Another tiny compact high mileage commute car. Physics can be unforgiving.

 

doh my bad... i was looking at my FJC brocher and thought i saw it on the back cover... turns out its the Highlander... you know almost a truck

 

As i said below, if they allowed us to charge said batteries off the Grid, then for small commutes or erronds it would essentally be an electric vehical. = infinate mpg.

as for battery life/replacement.. The numbers ive seen are on the 5-7 year range which is about how long people keep cars these days. And 5-7 years from now battery tech should have advanced enough were replacements are a non issue.

 

My only regret buying and fully paying off my newer 4runner was I could have built my own 'plug-in' hybrid with my engineering background. That would have been bigtime fun. Plug-ins are cost effective if you build it yourself. Slap in batteries and a charger.

In LA you can buy custom plug-in mods for toyota hybrid but they are a waste of money. Installers charge mega $1000s for the mod which never gets offsetted. Probably now they are being sold to people who don't do the math and get ripped off. But it's an infancy tech.

And what happens to the value of your investment after 6 years?? Who wants to buy a car with dead-weight, junk batteries requiring additional $1000s. Re-sale value is junk.

Disagree. Battery tech has been ongoing for 60 years with no breakthroughs. Heavy lead replaced with exotic more expensive metals like lithium or nickel. There's a fundamental physics problem, electrical storage is lousy. 1 gallon of gas = 1 ton of batteries = lousy. No magic cures.

Battery storage breakthrough requires revolutionary capacitor design from nanotech discovery which is 200 or 300 years in the future. That's the history of science.

BUT for a LIGHTWEIGHT vehicle only, the cost of batteries is cheap and cost effective ... current technology. Best case is a bicycle transporting only necessary weight of body, battery and tiny frame. With battery cost = about 180 mpg. Around a 10 fold increase. So a car is much less and tends to be a tiny plastic auto, ... using current tech.

A good solution my brother did just last month. He bought a cheap $1300, 1990 year, 200k miles odometer, high mileage auto, 40+mpg, to offset his SUV. It's already working for him. But it's doubtful that a newer LARGER vehicle hybrid would get much over 30 mpg city with normal driving habits.

Two factors hammer gas mileage: 1) weight and 2) engine volume: number of cylinders/ cc.

 

I agree battery tech hasnt grown like the computer tech. but there has been little need for it to. Only today has our computer power and tech allowed us to sqeeze compents down to a size were the battery is now the limiting factor.

Look at the electic RC plane/ helicopter. they basicly didnt exist 5 years ago because the battery tech wasnt there. Look at LCD's the tech to produce 20" screens (or larger) didnt exist 5-7 years go.

dude keep up

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles...e_id=218392803

artical as of 2 weeks ago

between that design and or compact fuel cells, riseing cost of fuel is quickly going to push the development of both feilds. If you were smart you'd be investing in both feilds.

as for resale value, look at the Big 3. they are a stones through away from the idea of a dispolsable veichal. They give them away for dirt cheep (saw and add last night for $6600 off before trade in, a full size chevy cost half what a quad cab taco is), they have no resale value and fall apart shortly after that. (crush them and start over)

so the idea that you would want to hold on to the same car for 15 years is a bit erriouious in the (short) years to come.

I would expect the way we look at veihcals to change dramticlly in the next 5-10 years. While we wont be flying around in our own Jettsion-mobile, they wont "work" like cars of the mid 90's.

 

Cool article but journalists fabricate then exaggerate using words like 'super'. After that then there is scientists seeking more funding.

Very doubtful.
Similar volumes, capacitors holds 1000s less. A capacitor is a TEMPORARY storage only. Not permanent or not semi-permanent. But I'm too lazy to do the energy density calcualtions. The biggest are only a few fared caps used in automobile stereo systems which is poor energy density.

The authors deception also is comparing capacitor to chemical battery which is marginal density at best. You must compare capacitor to chemical fuel.

There is a number floating out there like a gallon of gasoline equals a ton of batteries. That is not 25 to 1 ratio.

The problem, like the article states, is surface area. Very limited cuz a capacitor is built from plates. The problem is those plates must be thin as atomic dimension to holds a lot of charge. 300 years in the future.

Even then, the energy density of a chemical reaction is probably higher than stored charge (eg fuel cell or internal combustion). The reason the chemical reaction of gasoline and oxygen has tremendous more energy density is it works at 1) atomic level and 2) in 3 dimensional volume space versus a capacitor is 2dimen + macro-molecular.

Nano-tech is only at equivalent year 1000 in mechanics when wheels became pulleys then bigger machines. 30 years of Nano tech and still not beyond the carbon tube. Nano is centuries distant. ... but big false promises get scientists more State funding.

Also it's unfair to compare dissimilar science. An advance in LCDs has little comparison to electrical storage. In fact, the manhatten project discovery of nuclear energy was simpler than solving electrical storage because the atomic equations are known for nuclear.

Fuel cells is a complete different animal too. Fuel cell is the pursuit to replace thermodynamic waste of 70%, eg Carnot cycle. Replacing the horrible 'heat engine' physical limit with a more direct approach. A gasoline engine wastes 70% of it's fuel while hydroelectric wastes only 15% due to avoiding heat and being more direct conversion. Fuel cells only promise better efficiency. The science may be centuries distant.

As for 'disposable' vehicles. Corporations love the re-use of disposables but consumers prefer quality. Corps and State love quantity. People prefer quality. Rush won't mention that part lol. eg I heard of a guy with 700k+ miles on his high mileage auto. Some people already have successful solutions not waiting for Corps or the State.

Poor re-sale of hybrids is already a problem.

HIGH OIL PRICE = POLITICAL PROBLEM
The good news is the problem of high gas prices is solved with current tech with two cars. One for high mileage. Therefore the actual problem is political eg do insurance companies overcharge to negate the beneficial gasoline saving, eg central bank destruction of US dollar raises oil prices. Vote 'em out.

Funny note. My bro and I play the gas stock market. With his extra high mileage car he says he loves it when gas prices goes up to offset his investment risk. And I cheer when it declines cuz I only get 20mpg to his 40+mpg.

Article: Fun reading but journalists fabricate.

 

so when's the cold fusion engine going to be here?

 

dude i waitin for my Mr Fusion, ive got bannana peals and bear cans just waitin....

 

I completely forgot about that! sign me up for one of those too!

 

I work at at Toy dealership, and I talked to a guy who works at the Toyota motor plant in Erlanger KY, and he said they are currently working on hybrid Tacomas. Dont know when though. Also said 3/4 diesel Tundras are in the works.

 

I am sure they will have a hybrid in the very near future, bht thing is, it's not cost effective!

Many people have done studies. First off hybrid's cost more up front. I don't remember the exact figures, but it will take someting like 4 years of average driving (15,000 a year) just to make up the original cost difference between regular engine and hybrid. Then in 4 year, you may be ready for new batteries which right now are very expensive. The mileage may look attractive but look at the big picture and you will find very little or no savings.

 

Lease.