Will Toyota ever build a bigger torque engine?

There’s unlimited natural gas and coal. Already have conversions to run petro automobiles on propane. Fire and explosions have been around since the dawn of time.

 

Yup. Seen it up close 2 days ago. However it isn’t affordable yet. And even if it were, people would somehow complain.

 

Their sales say they don't have too.

 

But why? For lower performance? As I’ve said all along, you won’t be buying an electric Tacoma (etc) because you want to save the globe, you’ll buy one because your present gas truck or diesel “rig” will be weak-sauce and suck total ass in comparison. You’ll be last to the lake, and be visiting a fuel broker to buy your monthly drum of custom fuel.

Performance minded people will all go electric. Nostalgic people will cling to a dying technology.

 

They won’t complain about torque, that’s for sure, and no transmission either to annoy. It will be “battery life” / “charge rate” and “ugly grille” threads mostly.

 

We already travel as fast as we can. Just because an electric car will go 250mph doesn’t mean they will be traveling on the roads like that. We already have gas race cars that go 250mph and they’re not on commuter roads.

 

Faux grille is now a reality for everyone

 

It’s how quickly you get up to speed, and the control of the vehicle. The is no advantage to internal combustion, other than installed infrastructure and range. The range numbers are falling fast for EV, and the performance of gas and diesel cars is getting worse and worse with mandated pollution controls.

Anyways man.....you can cling, which is cool, and may take you along for another decade just fine, but changes are afoot, and they will eventually make your dedication to internal combustion a very expensive hobby.

I can already see it where I live. I get 2-3 requests a week to study the electrical services feeding residential highrises, condos, and commercial buildings. The question I am being asked, incessantly, to answer, is: “how many car chargers can we install? We need to know ASAP”. Many new buildings being built now are designed around 100% available car chargers at every parking space.

Once the gas stations start closing it’s going to change things even faster, and fuel will get more and more punishingly expensive.

It a cool change to witness. I think it’s going to mean good things in the pickup and Offroad communities. Way more capable vehicles, that are far more reliable.

 

I’m right with you, we’ve had electric vehicles and trains for the last 100 years. Just don’t think gas vehicles (liquid and gas) are going anywhere.

 

Fixed it^^^^

I will give you two further thoughts to consider:

Thought number 1: Why haul the gas around?

If you want to burn our unlimited supply of fossil fuels to produce energy to allow people to get around in their cars, why not do it centrally to produce electricity that charges those cars? A central gas-fired generating station can have more advanced pollution controls and scrubbers than you would ever fit to a car, and can be located away from cities. Your car benefits from not having to haul around the fuel, the exhaust system, the internal combustion engine, and the pollution controls, making it lighter and more efficient, with the performance gains of an EV drivetrain.

Thought number 2: An EV always weighs the same.

A challenge with tuning high performance vehicles, and to a lesser extent pickup trucks etc, is that the vehicle handles much differently with a full tank than an empty tank. Compromises must be made to accommodate these changes. With an EV the weight of the vehicle never changes, so you can dial you suspension for exactly the weight of the car and driver. This will mean performance gains in racing etc.

 

That's got to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

Sounds like those futuristic bikes in the animated movie Akira.

EV's are the future.

 

I agree. I was blown away watching that. I like how the spectator comments are “holy fuck / Holy Shit!!! / Wow!!”

Think of the energy expended taking that car up that hill. Pikes Peak is one of the great challenges in Motorsports, consisting of a simple combination of power, time, and distance. The EV takes it with authority. Very cool indeed.

My favourite moment is the high-speed pass at 1:43.

 

Why can't the Tacoma get the Lexus LS400 3.5 V6 rated at 416hp !!

 

Much more elegant than the suzuki Escudo.

 

Maybe it will get the 3.5 V6 hybrid, which is much more powerful than the NA version

 

Something about a 400 plus hp 3.5 V6 in a Tacoma sounds very appealing !!!

 

If Suzuki wants to take the Peak record back, they’ll need an EV of their own I guess.

 

I’d buy a Tacoma Hybrid. That would reduce many of the complaints around here about torque.

They gave us the fuel efficient Prius engine concept (Atkinson Cycle) but forgot to bottom-load the missing torque with the electric motors, like happens on a Prius. We all end up mashing the gas in our Tacos and lose the advantage of the Atkinson Cycle anyways.

Ughhh.

 

Thought number 1: Had never considered that aspect before. I like it. It would be akin to having pipelines ran to every gas station from a central refinery which is absurd, but electricity is already done like that much easier and safer. Needs ability to handle more capacity though. Only thing close is natural gas at the moment since most of our houses have it piped in.

 

Just a comment on capabilities of Gen 3 Tacoma’s...

This past weekend, I loaded my 2018 Tacoma TRD OR (3.5L V6) to near its listed capacity with wet mulch (~1100 lbs). The truck barely seemed to even notice it was there, which tells me it’s listed capacity is underrated. Granted, that’s probably as much as I’ll ever need to haul, but the point is, my Truck does the job Toyota says it will, very admirably. Nothing to complain about in my mind.