To be Toyota Looking to bring a little more fun and engagement to your petrol-electric hybrid vehicles?
A patent filed in the United States, unearthed and published by CD drivershows that the Japanese automaker is working on manual transmissions for its hybrid cars that have a clutch that can be controlled by the driver or the vehicle’s electronic control unit (ECU).
This patent was first filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in August 2021, but only went public this year.
In essence, this is not a wire clutch system electronically controlled by the transmission, but a system using a clutch master cylinder with two auxiliary cylinders – one by the driver and one by the ECU. control.
This system allows the driver to control what the ECU wants to do by pressing the clutch pedal and applying more force than what the ECU is doing. The patent lists this as a “sports mode”.
On the other hand, the ECU can cut and disconnect the engine clutch from the wheels whenever it wants, which is important for hybrid cars that may need to do this to get moving.
It’s unclear if this type of technology will ever make it to production vehicles.
It is also unclear if it will be used in a hybrid sports car.
If Toyota brings something like this to market, it will be the first time since the Honda CR-Z, a hybrid vehicle offered with a manual transmission.
It should be noted that the Integrated Engine Assist (IMA) hybrid system in the CR-Z manual cannot operate in EV mode.
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Honda CR-Z
This isn’t the first time Toyota has rolled out the idea of using a manual transmission in an electric vehicle.
It previously filed a trademark with the USPTO for a simulated manual transmission specially designed for electric vehicles (tram).
It works like a conventional manual transmission and has gear-like “stages”.
THAN: Toyota patents electric vehicle manual transmission with dummy clutch
