Toyota to Rivals: Take This Hybrid Tech and Build It
On Wednesday, Toyota announced plans to offer royalty-free access to its cache of hybrid technology patents. While the automaker already licenses aspects of its Hybrid Synergy Drive to other automakers, the new strategy seeks to drastically expand the use of its systems as the world gears up for widespread electrification.
Toyota, cautious as ever, has been understandably hesitant to throw itself headlong into costly BEV development programs. It did have the foresight, however, to jump into hybrid technology earlier than most other manufacturers, and doesn’t want to see that edge lost as battery-only vehicles grow in popularity. Providing open access to the nearly 24,000 patents on hardware used in the Prius and Mirai could help the company stack the deck in its favor.
“We want to look beyond producing finished vehicles,” Toyota Executive Vice President Shigeki Terashi, was quoted to have said by Automotive News. “We want to contribute to an increase in take up (of electric cars) by offering not just our technology but our existing parts and systems to other vehicle makers.”
After hoarding the Prius’ hardware for years and taking the lion’s share of the hybrid vehicle market, the time is apparently right for Toyota to share more openly. Costly investments in advanced technologies has encouraged the industry to cooperate more, something Toyota is particularly adept at.
“Based on the high volume of inquiries we receive about our vehicle electrification systems from companies that recognize a need to popularize hybrid and other electrified vehicle technologies, we believe that now is the time for cooperation,” Terashi said in the announcement. “If the number of electrified vehicles accelerates significantly in the next 10 years, they will become standard, and we hope to play a role in supporting that process.”
Toyota said it will make technical support available to help manufacturers reach performance goals with purchased vehicle electrification systems:
As for the fee-based technical support Toyota will offer, specifics include providing overviews of vehicle electrification systems, control guides, and detailed explanations of tuning guides for vehicles that will utilize its systems. The guidance that Toyota will provide, for example, includes helping other automakers to achieve high-level product performance in terms of fuel efficiency, output, and quietness fit for the vehicles they are working to develop. The services will be contract-based. More details will be provided to interested parties.
It’s a clever way to get around pure EVs (which Toyota lacks) and support the company’s own established hybrid tech. We’ll have to see how it plays out. If other automakers take a bite, which seems likely, the company could theoretically prop up hybrids with its own hardware. Not a bad place to be in the grand scheme of things.
[Image: Toyota]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Total BS. Hybrids (including Toyota's) have had their (20-year) day in the sun, but are now a dying species. Toyota is a day late and a dollar short on offering this technology. Almost everyone already offers a hybrid today, and they don't need Toyota's technology now. Frankly, I'm sure everyone who offers a hybrid has already studied Toyota's technology and found their own ways around the patents. Toyota's patents are worthless now. BEVs are only getting better, as are conventional ICEs, and hybrids are becoming the red-headed stepchild in the automotive family. Cheap gas doesn't help the case for hybrids, and neither does their wonky driveability. As for the Mirai - that turd needs to die, and only Hyundai is crazy enough to continue messing around with fuel cell vehicles.
Pedant Mode ON. " the high volume of inquiries" - So are these inquiries three dimensional, or just really, really loud? Pedant Mode Off.