For decades, choosing a powertrain for your next car was easy. You had to choose between petrol and diesel engines, and that was largely it. However, in recent decades, as technology has evolved and emissions regulations have tightened, buyers have been inundated with acronyms that make the process confusing: MHEV, HEV, PHEV, EV/BEV, REEV and FCEV. If you are a car enthusiast, you probably know what these letters mean. But most people don’t live and breathe cars like you or me.
This rich variety of hybrid systems adds to the confusion, and the world’s largest automaker wants to make sure it doesn’t mislead its customers. Toyota Australia vice-president of sales and marketing Sean Hanley said Driving force magazine that the company does not consider vehicles that use mild-hybrid technology (MHEV) to be true hybrids.
‘As far as we are concerned, a 48 volt-supported system does not equate to a hybrid drive. We do not count 48 volts as HEV [hybrid electric vehicle]just to put it on the record. They are not hybrids, certainly not, so we certainly want to separate these three conditions on this technology.’
The Toyota official believes it’s up to automakers to make the terminology crystal clear so people understand what they’re actually buying: “I think OEMs have a responsibility to make sure.”
Photo by: Toyota
The irony, however, is that in some markets Toyota associates 48-volt cars with hybrids. For example, the Land Cruiser Hybrid 48V and Hilux Hybrid 48V were introduced in Europe only a few months ago. Both the SUV and pickup are described as having an “electrified powertrain” with an electric motor generator replacing the conventional alternator.
What exactly is a mild hybrid?
The combustion engine powers the motor generator, which in turn charges the lithium-ion battery. There is also a DC-DC converter to manage the energy flow between the battery and the motor. Although a mild-hybrid setup smooths out start-stop operation and makes it quieter, it usually can’t propel the car on electric power alone.
Then why do mild hybrids exist? Because, at least on paper, they deliver modest efficiency gains at minimal cost and weight. A 48-volt system can’t match the fuel economy of a true series-parallel hybrid (HEV), let alone a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), but with emissions regulations tightening, it’s an affordable way to help reduce CO₂ levels. In the case of the Hilux, fuel consumption and emissions are reduced by five percent.
Advantages of a mild hybrid
Toyota also claims that acceleration from a standstill and deceleration are more linear than in a conventional ICE car. In addition, waste is further minimized by the regeneration function, which recovers energy that would otherwise be lost when the driver takes his foot off the accelerator. The stored energy is then used to power the engine’s stop-start function and assist during acceleration.
Toyota offers a wide range of hybrid flavors, along with fully electric vehicles (BEV/EV) powered by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells (FCEV). The company is also developing a new family of gasoline engines compatible with “any type of application,” according to a recent statement from Andrea Carlucci, Toyota Europe’s vice president of product strategy and marketing. Between the lines, this new engine could be used as a generator to charge a battery in range-extended electric vehicles (REEV), allowing Toyota to cover almost every powertrain category.
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