Toyota brought the ‘funky’ to the 2012 Geneva Motor Show with the Toyota FT-Bh Hybrid Concept, an ultra-light, sub-800 kg, full hybrid vehicle designed to lower fuel consumption and minimise emissions.
Tasked with developing a mean, extra green, fighting machine, Toyota’s designers and engineers designed the FT-Bh hybrid around 5 key pillars: Mass Reduction, Driving Resistance in the form of aerodynamics and tyre rolling resistance, Powertrain Efficiency, Thermal Energy Management and Electricity Saving.
Despite being longer than the Toyota Yaris hatchback, the small hybrid is 25 percent lighter thanks to the use of high-tensile steel, aluminium and magnesium. And that funky look? Well, it’s the source of the car’s very low 0.235 drag coefficient.
Employing a hybrid system that combines a two-cylinder, 1.0-litre Atkinson cycle petrol engine with an electric motor, the funky-licious FT-Bh hybrid Concept is said to deliver a combined fuel economy of 134.5mpg UK (111.9 mpg US or 2.1l l/100km) with CO2 emissions of just 49 g/km.
