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New Toyota Power Chip Could Hike Hybrid Efficiency 10%
Toyota Motor Corp. says the new power controller chip it has designed could improve the overall fuel efficiency of a hybrid vehicle as much as 10%.
The chip uses silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, which waste less energy as heat.
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Toyota Motor Corp. says the new power controller chip it has designed could improve the overall fuel efficiency of a hybrid vehicle as much as 10%.
The chip uses silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, which waste less energy as heat. The device also can switch on and off much faster. But the new SiC chip also is considerably costlier to fabricate a major hurdle to Toyota's plan to commercialize the design by about 2020.
The new device consumes only 10% as much power as a conventional controller semiconductor and eliminates the need for bulky capacitors, according to Toyota. The company says a controller built with SiC chips could be only one-fifth the size of devices that use simpler silicon wafers.
Toyota tells reporters in Japan it already has accomplished a 5% fuel economy boost with its chip in test vehicles. It aims to double that improvement by the end of the decade. The company expects to begin testing the chips in vehicles on public roads in Japan within a year.
Toyota is developing the chip in Japan with its Central R&D Labs and parts affiliate Denso Corp.
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