Quote:
Originally Posted by payne171
I think Hybrid Synergy Drive is a fantastic system, but Toyota forgot to up the battery capacity along with the weight of the car they put it in. If they bumped the battery by almost 60% when they bumped the car weight by 60%, there would be no complaints. I think this is why the FoMoCo SUVs can get ~30mpg while the Highlander gets low 20s. Ford used a 330V battery while Toyota used a lower voltage and a boost converter. Cobb, you know better than most what a difference extra capacity makes. For all of the advantages of Toyota's system, they can be eliminated with a bigger battery. It's that simple.
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Actually, Toyota did not forget to bump the battery size on the 2013 Camry Hybrid, which has a 1.6 Kwh battery, compared to the Prius's 1.3 Kwh battery. This represents a 23% increase in battery size. The 2013 Camry Hybrid weighs about 3,500 lbs, compared to the 2013 Prius's weight of 3,040 lbs. The difference in weight (15%) is actually less than the 23% increase in battery size. So, in fact, Toyota overcompensated in the increase in battery capacity. The reason why the camry hybrid's combined mpg is about 20% less than the prius's is because it weighs 15% more and thus requires more energy (more fuel) to propel. The extra 5% can be explained by the Prius's slightly better drag coefficient.
Many people read these posts, and many will take what we write as fact, so please don't use statistics that you haven't thoroughly researched as fact.
