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Heavy! Toyota decided to open its hybrid vehicle technology patent!

There has always been a saying in the automobile circle, "there are two kinds of hybrid in the world, one is Toyota hybrid, the other is other hybrid." There is no doubt that Toyota has high attainments in hybrid system, Toyota THS system is considered to be the most perfect hybrid solution, but limited by technical patents and cost reasons, no other car companies can use it. With the implementation of the policy and the rapid development of electric vehicles, Toyota has now decided to open hybrid vehicle patents free of charge.

Japan's Toyota announced on April 3rd that it would open about 23740 patents for electric vehicle-related technologies, such as hybrid vehicles (HV), for core components such as engines and batteries. Toyota executives said that "environmental protection technology can only be meaningful if it is popularized." At present, electrified technology is improving rapidly, and Toyota believes that even if patents are opened for free, they can remain competitive by continuing to delve into unique technology.

Toyota hopes to expand the hybrid market by providing technology to other competitors free of charge, citing the strengthening of global fuel efficiency regulations. If the external sales of related components lead to an increase in demand, the cost of hybrid vehicles is expected to fall and help strengthen the competitiveness of pure electric vehicles (EV) with the same main components.

At present, "phasing out fuel vehicles and vigorously developing electric vehicles" has become a problem being considered by many countries. China, as the world's largest automobile market, has already formulated relevant policies for the implementation of electric vehicles, and through subsidies, licensing, tax cuts and other policies, the annual production and sales of electric vehicles in China has been pushed up to one million, while the United States and Europe are also favored by electric vehicles, which have recently been brokered by the German Automobile Industry Association (VDA). Executives of Germany's three auto giants negotiated and finally agreed on the future strategy of the auto industry. Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW agreed that the future belongs to electric vehicles.

The collective statement of the German automakers means that the future development path of the German automobile industry will be electric vehicles. Although Toyota has an overwhelming advantage in the field of hybrid vehicles, it has entered the electric vehicle relatively late and opened its hybrid vehicle technology patent. It is also considered that Toyota hopes to make a comeback in the commercialization of pure electric vehicles that started late.

As early as last year, it was rumored that Toyota would open its THS system to other car companies. At the end of 2018, Dong Changzheng, Toyota's executive deputy general manager in China, revealed that Toyota was working with Geely Motor, China's largest private car company, to promote hybrid technology through its partner in China's core hybrid parts supplier, Ke Liyuan, which won Toyota THS core technology for 1 yuan.

Obviously, Toyota wants to enable THS to open up the market in China through Geely. In China, Toyota dual-engine hybrid vehicles equipped with THS are not classified as new energy, and there is no policy support, and the high price also makes Toyota dual-engine models sell very little in China. If Geely wins hybrid technology, it will have a great impact on Geely's new energy development direction.

Toyota's gas-electric hybrid technology, which has been promoted and applied by Toyota for many years, has been verified in tens of millions of vehicles around the world. the technology is reliable and mature and has the characteristics of fuel saving, durability and environmental protection. According to Toyota statistics, as of April 2018, the cumulative sales of Toyota's HEV models have exceeded 12 million, and HEV has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 94 million tons.

After the oil crisis in the 1970s, Toyota's G21 project team was officially established in 1993, and the Prius equipped with Toyota dual-engine hybrid system THS (Toyota Hybrid System) was officially released in 1997. today, Toyota's THS has evolved to the fourth generation, which is used by all Toyota hybrid cars (Prius, Camry, Lexus, Lexus, etc.). So far, the cumulative global sales of the Prius has exceeded 4 million, and the cumulative sales of Prius c and Prius α / vUnip + have also exceeded 2 million.

Toyota's THS system calculates the target speed of the engine through the ingenious design of the characteristics of the planetary gear set and the number of gear teeth, as well as the position signal of the throttle pedal, the driving conditions of the vehicle and the charging state of the battery, so as to determine the best speed of the engine at that speed, which is also the most important part of the Toyota THS system for energy saving and fuel saving.

Toyota's gas-electric hybrid may be a good thing, but Toyota has built a wall for THS through patent applications, which makes it difficult for other car companies to enter. Now China, the United States, Europe and other big markets are in love with pure electric vehicles, and have introduced relevant policies to implement electric vehicles. Toyota has been holding gas-electric hybrid technology, and if it goes on like this, it may be abandoned by the market, Nikkei Asia Review also commented. Toyota made the decision fearing that hybrids would lose their importance as the industry shifts to pure electric vehicles.

On the other hand, many of Toyota's core THS patents are about to expire, and it takes a lot of money to develop a new generation of THS technology, but no matter how good Toyota's THS is, it needs the market to pay for the technology. With the current technology, it is still difficult for electric cars to really popularize, and hybrid cars between electric vehicles and fuel vehicles are considered to be an ideal form of transitional power. obviously, Toyota no longer wants to put a single bet on it. It is intended to open up the patented technology to drive the gas-electric hybrid vehicle market. Now Toyota is now opening up patents for hybrid vehicle technology, and may be able to gain both fame and fortune.

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