[freebeard]

New Semiconductor Could Improve Vehicle Fuel Economy By 10 Percent - Slashdot

From the summary:

Toyota says the PCU accounts for a quarter of the total electrical power losses in a hybrid drive system, and semiconductors alone make up a full fifth of the total. Reduce electrical losses through a semiconductor, and you can make your hybrid system (and therefore your car) more efficient. Toyota has done this, in theory at least, using a new silicon carbide material for its semiconductors, rather than a standard silicon unit.

The penultimate comment at the time of posting:

Found a better site (Score:4, Informative)
by AutodidactLabrat (3506801) on Friday May 23, 2014 @07:18PM (#47079825)
Looks like Toyota has produced the pinch-channel Class I V transistor in SiC with no minimum offset / gain.
Seriously, holy grail for current steering.
Can't find the vendor of the raw SiC so no idea about Delta-V / Delta-I limits but looks very good
10% net reduction in loss.

...but no better site link.