Future of Toyota Truck Engines Involves ‘Sweeping’ Changes
New engines, transmissions & AWD systems promise to make Toyota trucks more powerful, fuel-efficient & capable than ever.
If there’s anything that keeps us Toyota truck fans up at night, it’s the future of the internal combustion engine. Electric vehicles seem poised to take over the planet in the very near future, after all. Not to mention self-driving technology. And yes, the plan is to introduce a “sweeping powertrain portfolio” over the next five years. But it doesn’t appear that Toyota is ready to kill our fun just yet.
In fact, according to Automotive News, the automaker is actually overhauling its engine lineup with an eye toward fuel efficiency and sportiness. And we must say, the combination of the two isn’t necessarily a bad thing. By 2023, Toyota intends to have new power plants in a whopping 80 percent of their vehicles, a not-insignificant number by any means.
According to Automotive News, those new engines also come with “more dynamic all-wheel-drive systems for trucks” and CVT transmissions that act more like conventional automatics. But the most interesting tidbit from this is that Toyota isn’t finished with the internal combustion engine just yet. In fact, they anticipate that 90 percent of their vehicles will continue to rely on the ages-old tech even in 2030.
Pair that with all-new underpinnings dubbed Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA), and Toyota trucks promise to be lighter, easier to build and modify, and more fuel-efficient with lower emissions. They also aim to achieve these goals by using tech like direct injection, optimized valve-timing control, and tweaked fuel-air turbulence. They’re even using valve seats with widened valve angles, a la Formula 1.
Two new all-wheel drive systems aim to improve both fuel-efficiency and off-road performance. The first, dynamic torque vectoring AWD, channels torque to each wheel independently. The system can also revert to two-wheel drive when needed to improve efficiency. E-Four, intended for hybrids, delivers 30-percent more torque to the real wheels than Toyota’s current setup.
Toyota still plans to introduce 10+ EVs in the coming decade. But it’s clear that they haven’t given up on gas just yet. They’re going to continue to push the envelope on what’s possible with the good old internal combustion engine. Which is music to every Toyota truck lover’s ears!
New engines, transmissions & AWD systems promise to make Toyota trucks more powerful, fuel-efficient & capable than ever.
