During the recent Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota showcased several of their models which were developed together with Gazoo Racing. Two of the vehicles were the GRMN Yaris and the GRMN iQ and both cars were forced induced. Many in the auto industry believed that Toyota is taking a giant leap into small-sized forced induced engines for their future cars.

In recent years, Toyota has focused much of its engineering development in hybrid vehicles while many of its competitors are instead focusing on downsized, direct injection turbo engines (for e.g. Hyundai). Turbo engines may not offer the excellent urban fuel economy that hybrids offer. What they do offer is performance that buyers typically want and also better highway mileage. Plus, they are much cheaper to build compared to those complex hybrids.

Toyota is lagging behind in next-generation direct fuel injection technology that offers more efficient ways in the mixture of air and fuel so as to provide a boost in both performance and mileage. Another key technology that Toyota is lagging behind is next-generation transmissions. Although they do have an eight-speed auto transmission in their luxury cars (e.g. Lexus LS) but many of their cars still uses a four-speed auto which many people see as an outdated item.

There are rumours going around stating that the Japanese automaker has an intensive program for the development of direct fuel injection and small-sized turbocharged engines, with a possibility of them being used in the next few years. This will enable Toyota to keep up with other automakers. According to a recent report in a Japanese newspaper, the downsized direct injection turbo engine will begin to appear in domestic models first and as early as 2013. Toyota will then start to use them in emerging markets such as China.

The next generation Toyota Corolla is cited to be the model that will most likely get the newly developed engine and also, there is a possibility that the Toyota Camry will feature the same engine too, without waiting for a full model change.

Even though Toyota has current models which feature supercharged engines, we might see a change in this as small-sized direct injection, turbocharged engines are fast becoming the common choice for automakers today and this could further increase the competitiveness for Toyota’s products.

Photo credit: Auto Blog and dapurpacu.com

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