Tacoma Hybrid is a joke

Yes but no. Aldi Sud owns the Aldi stores in the US. Aldi Nord owns Trader Joes. They are separate companies that split in the 60's. Now Aldi Sud just bought the Win Dixies brand last year.

 

I keep seeing people say this and it just doesn't align with reality. The hybrid gets 45% more torque at the expense of 10% more weight. Do you really think that at that ratio the power gains are marginalized?

 

Probably depends on whether that eTorque is always available or is just a best-case dynamometer number. On a Rav4 you can really feel the difference between the gasser and hybrid but not sure this is the case for the Tacoma hybrid. Someday soon I hope to test them both.

 

You are carrying around that 500lbs of extra weight 100% of the time that you are driving, but only getting the benefit of the extra torque in conditions where you are exceeding the limits of the non-hybrid.

 

The hybrid adds 500lbs? That’s insanity if true

 

Yeh it can't even be determined by a weight comparison. It would have to be done by weighing the individual parts. Motor and batteries and cables and controller.

 

Seems unlikely with such a small electric motor and battery but the GVWR are a lot higher for the hybrid models. Both the hybrid and non-hybrid owner's manuals list the same payloads so it's not a higher GVWR because they are rated to carry more in the bed.

 

At least you have an option of buying one without the hybrid, which is more than I can say about the new Land Cruiser.

 

I’m just disappointed that they didn’t target fuel economy with the truck hybrids or at least make it an option. If the new Tacoma had hit 30 mpg combined, I could have gotten used to the looks.

I’d also like to know why the completely loaded Camry AWD hybrid got nearly 50mpg (according to the dashboard) on my test loop and cost just over 40k.

The Limited Tacoma with roughly the same options as the XSE AWD Camry gets 24 mpg and pushes $60k.

 

Because I’m going to let you in on a little secret the entire auto industry has known since they started putting hybrids into big heavy vehicles. It doesn’t positively affect fuel economy. Ever. And whatever power gains could be offset by just putting a bigger engine or bigger turbo.

This is just to appease regulators and a very small minority of the car buying population.

 

I don't think that's the case. The specs say 465ft/lbs @1700rpm. That does not sound like you need to be maxing out the throttle to get the hybrid torque. Since these things barely exist on the road today all of us are just taking guesses. My guess is that the hybrid drivetrain is so much more powerful it more than offsets any weight gain.

 

I’ve heard this before, but I just don’t buy it.

Not everything can be easily scaled up or down, but regenerative braking and engines designed for peak cruising efficiency with battery powered motors for acceleration don’t seem very difficult to adapt.

Battery and charging technology are likely only a few years away from making even that technology obsolete anyway, along with transmissions, driveshafts, differentials, alternators, starters… etc.

It’s all going the way of clutch free-play/choke/carb adjustments, checking valves and dumping my ashtray in a K-Mart parking lot.

 

Yes, the internal combustion is horse and buggy technology that hasn’t changed at all in the last 100 years whereas something magical will happen to batteries that won’t make them heavy or as dangerous in the next 10 years and hybrid and electric cars will no longer suck.

Every commercial you see for an electric car or SUV or a hybrid they keep going on about how fast it is in a straight line how much torque it has, because that’s about the only positive thing of something that weighs as much as it does. If the tundra Iforce anything to go by, I’m not expecting anything spectacular.

I thought that finally we stopped making bloated vehicles, but it looks like we’re back to the 6000-7000 pound EVs and hybrid trucks and SUVs.

 

Just the current state of EV's. Unlike the ICE vehicle the tech has been the same since the late 1800's as EV's improve yearly in efficiency and weight savings be as minimal as it currently is. EV's tech is still in it's infancy and I've been following the tech and advances throughout the years. It's a slow slog the past 10 years but the next 10 years will see major weight and charge time changes.

 

Good, I'd love all that low end torque for rock crawling with the Torsen locking center diff...great combo.

 

I see a Hummer SUV almost daily I thought it was a pick up untill last week, maybe it's more than one. Local electric utility has added the Chevy Silverado EV pick up to their line up. Outside of potential comfort issues for the driver, a Colorado could do the job.

 

Which would just be accounted for in the tuning of the electric assist and throttle curve

 

Complained about on the website where people bolt hundreds of pounds of shit to their trucks for looks...

 

I'm with you here: adding a bunch of extra stuff and making cars bigger isn't exactly the easiest way to improve efficiency.

People vote with their wallets though, and we know what sells.

 

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chicken tax and section 179 have ruined our perception of what we need