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Good to see the "Kaizen" philosophy at work toward FE improvements, roller rockers are always good for recuced parasitic losses. The variable length/volume intake tract is great to see being used on more production cars, independant VVT (intake AND exhaust) is a step in the right direction. Racers have long known the benefits of low tension piston rings with respect to parasitic frictional losses, but often a crankcase vacuum pump is needed to get the rings to seal. I wonder how Toyota is dealing with that? Three-stage variable oil pump is news, I've never heard of that, but it makes sence so long as it's bullet-proof simple (some experimental oil pump warrenty problem could really hurt if it doesn't work out). Increased compression ratio while still burning regular fuel means they are improving combustion control, I attended a recent update on similar resarch that sounded promising. Same with new injectors.
The marketing guy who wrote the press release lost me when he said "Key low-friction technologies include an offset crankshaft..." the term offset crankshaft used as if it were some sort of FE improving feature (they likely increased the crank stoke to increase the displacement from 2.4 to 2.5 liters, slightly increasing torque but nothing to do with lower friction, FE improvements) don't mind me, it's just a peive of mine to see this repeated more than once in automotive marketing circles.
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