The Le Mans Race is a European endurance race that runs 24 hours. There are a number of such races all branching off the original race that occurs during the peak of June in Europe. This means often hot temperatures, rain or some other unpredictable weather conditions can occur.
Toyota announced they are building a Hybrid sports car to race in this endurance race. But it’s important to first know something about hybrid cars.
A typical hybrid car has a battery operated motor to run the vehicle and alternates with the usual combustible engine that we are already familiar with. The motion of the vehicle recharges the batter while it’s traveling and when the charge is down the combustible engine takes over. This creates the more preferable fuel economy so favored by the public as well as the low gasoline emissions that normally are much higher with a combustible engine. The Toyota Prius for example, has a gasoline mile per gallon of 48 highway driving and 51 city driving.
There are always questions in the public’s mind as to whether or not durability and maintenance cost are going to be high. The cost of a new hybrid car is very competitive with many standard gasoline driven automobiles and now Toyota wants to prove the endurance of their hybrid vehicle.
By Toyota building this 2012 hybrid sports car and putting it in the Le Mans and it pulls through it will prove what is backing its 3 million hybrid cars sales of 2011. They are out to prove not only the endurance but the performance, economy, durability and safety of their hybrid vehicles. They will also be able to show that along with the performance there is speed throughout a twenty four hour period using a 3 person driving team.
Let’s keep a watch on the Le Mans races around June 2012 or whenever the endurance race is they chose to enter and see how well they prove their point.
Good Luck Toyota, we’ll be watching.
via Automotive Discovery.
