Toyota, the pioneer of Hybrid cars has been garnering all the attention in the hybrid market with its hugely popular Prius. The Toyota Prius has become synonymous with the term “hybrid car” as it is the first mass produced and truly proficient hybrid. This car has created a new legend for the Japanese auto leader, achieving greater fame and fortune. It is true that there are a lot of newer rival hybrid cars today, but none of them could still surpass the huge popularity of the Prius.

However Toyota Motor, being the global auto leader knows the hard truth that constant innovation is required to keep it in the top spot and the Prius only is not enough. Thus, apart from giving the Prius an overall makeover in terms of design and performance, Toyota is also set to churn out some exotic machines.

The Japanese auto giant is planning to launch a superb hybrid race car to charm the world’s audience. Toyota has already revealed some of the details about the new upcoming TS040 hybrid race car after its track tests held in France. The new Toyota Hybrid racer is a light superfast performer with a light carbon-fiber body to be able to challenge the wind. This cool hybrid has been developed to take part in the leading LMP1 category race of WEC or the World Endurance Championship.

This is not the first time that Toyota has competed with a hybrid car though, while the German luxury car maker Audi has won several car races with its own hybrid sports cars. Porsche is also jumping on to the hybrid race bandwagon. Toyota thus has great competition waiting in this field as well.

New rules and regulations have been set for the 2014 season, which requires the car makers to make some changes in their race cars’ dimensions and has also set lesser limits on the usage of the hybrid power of the cars to boost its performance. Thus, the new upcoming Toyota TS040 is also a very new and contemporary race car that is a complete departure from the company’s earlier hybrid racers. The company statement claims it to be an advanced hybrid racing car very different from the earlier prototypes.

The new WEC series rules now allow around double the hybrid power to boost the race cars’ overall power as compared to the previous series and there is no limitation on when the driver chooses to use that extra power boost. Then again, the new hybrid system can direct much more horsepower to the car’s all 4 heels as compared against the earlier limited 300HP hybrid power that used to be directed to only the car’s rear wheels.

Toyota says that the technology that it is going to use in this upcoming race car will also be used to help the company develop more convenient, efficient and powerful hybrid cars for the mass market. The Japanese car major promised more details on the hybrid vehicle after commencing its official testing in March.

Tagged: Toyota Cars India, Toyota Hybrid Cars