Toyota Suppliers Ready New Wave of Advanced Technologies

Suppliers will play a big role in Toyota Motor Corp.'s shift to global vehicle architectures, Automotive News reports. It notes the push toward common parts will create new opportunities for top international suppliers to take business away from Toyota's keiretsu network of affiliated companies, which currently account for about 60% of the parts content on an average Toyota vehicle.

Starting with the next-generation Prius hybrid car due later this year, Toyota models increasingly will be developed to international specifications. To win spots on the high-volume platforms, international mega-suppliers and Toyota's traditional Japan-based vendors are developing a variety of high-tech components and features, AN says.

Denso Corp., which is Toyota's largest supplier, is working on a system that stores wasted engine heat and then uses it to heat lubricating oil. This can lessen friction loss during cold starts to help boost fuel efficiency.

Denso also is developing a fan to blow air over a cold sink in the air conditioner's evaporator, AN says. This will help keep a vehicle's interior cool when the HVAC unit temporarily switches off in vehicles equipped with engine stop-start systems.

Toyota's second-largest supplier, Aisin Seiki Co., is readying a pair of new technologies for the carmaker: grille shutters and an automatic transmission with locking gears. The latter, which AN likens to Volkswagen's direct-shift transmissions, will provide the efficiency and feel of a manual gearbox. It's expected to bow in unnamed Toyota models next year.

Aisin's new grille shutters automatically close at high speeds to enhance aerodynamics and improve fuel economy. The initial Toyota applications will be for compact cars, the supplier tells AN. Other carmakers have recently introduced similar systems for high-end cars and trucks.

Meanwhile, JTEKT Corp. is working on a steer-by-wire system for Toyota. The technology is a key enabler for emerging self-driving vehicle systems and will create more design freedom, JTEKT President Tetsuo Agata tells AN.

Another Toyota-affiliated company, Advics Co. Ltd., also is planning advanced systems for self-driving vehicles and next-generation hybrids. The company, which supplies the regenerative brakes for all of Toyota's hybrid-electric vehicles, is developing new systems that are less expensive and expand the effective range of regeneration, according to the report.