[sarathlal]

Toyota is bringing in a pair of brand-new naturally aspirated engines. These are developed in collaboration with Daihatsu.

The first is a 1.3-liter gasoline engine using the Atkinson cycle normally used in dedicated hybrid vehicles that achieves a maximum thermal efficiency of 38 percent — top-level among mass-produced engines.



The second is a 1.0-liter gasoline engine, jointly developed with Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., that has achieved maximum thermal efficiency of 37 percent.



The new engines will be used in models scheduled for partial redesign in the near future, and a total of 14 engine variations will be introduced globally by 2015.

Source: Toyota

[sudev]

Will need to goole a lot of terms but phenomenal thermal efficiency claims

[motorsan]

Staying with Toyota, came across an interesting article about how Toyota is making some of its workers build cars manually, instead of relying on robots in assembly line. The idea is to build craftsmanship and thereby help innovation, which is something only human beings can do.

Learning how to make car parts from scratch gives younger workers insights they otherwise wouldn’t get from picking parts from bins and conveyor belts, or pressing buttons on machines. At about 100 manual-intensive workspaces introduced over the last three years across Toyota’s factories in Japan, these lessons can then be applied to reprogram machines to cut down on waste and improve processes, Kawai said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...of-future.html