Toyota Hybrid-R concept is 400hp Yaris

Toyota

Toyota has confirmed the Hybrid-R concept is based on an existing production model – but it won’t be a souped-up version of the GT86 sports car as we initially suspected. Instead a new picture reveals something far more radical: the Hybrid-R is a 400hp petrol-electric Yaris.

Yes, Yaris. As in Toyota’s commendable and dependable but ultimately rather unmemorable supermini – a car that the Japanese firm is desperate to tempt younger buyers into. Kitting it out with technology from the TS030 hybrid Le Mans racer is certainly one way to do that...

Toyota has already announced the Hybrid-R would be heavily influenced by the super-capacitor hybrid system that helps boost its TS030 racing car by 300hp when required.

Turn up the exposure and the Yaris bodyshape is plain to see

This technology is called THS-R –for Toyota Hybrid System-Racing. And while the Hybrid-R concept for Frankfurt doesn’t incorporate exactly the same parts, it does work on similar principles.

Which is presumably to say – Toyota isn’t being specific at this stage – that instead of using a battery pack to store energy, it uses an electrical component called a capacitor.

This makes up what it lacks in range-enhancing capability with its speed of charge and discharge, giving an instant performance boost with a quick recovery time, so you don’t have to wait long before you can use it again.

In the Hybrid-R, we’re officially told that the combination of "electric motors" (note the plural) and a "high-power internal combustion engine" results in a grand total of 400hp.

There are no performance figures yet, but this should make a car as small as the Yaris extremely brisk. A "dual mode control" is used to set parameters for road or race track use.

But how, you may be wondering, do we know it’s a Yaris? All Toyota is prepared to admit at this stage is that the concept is based on an existing production car.

Simple, really. All we had to do was turn the exposure levels up in some photo-manipulation software, and the Yaris bodyshape is plain to see.
 

Quite why Toyota has chosen to give the Yaris this treatment, it’s hard to say – perhaps it’s laying the groundwork for a future production model based on this technology. Although we imagine the final outcome of the sports car project it’s currently undertaking with BMW would ultimately be more suitable.

Then again, the Yaris could do with a vitamin shot in the image department. And creating one of the world’s most extreme hot hatchbacks would definitely do that. Whatever the reason, it’s a big advance – in every sense – over the current Yaris Hybrid.

By CJ Hubbard, contributor, MSN Cars