"For the powertrain we have worked closely with the team at Total to not only reduce friction inside the engine, but within all components of the powertrain. Friction is the enemy of horsepower and tackling that has been one of the efficiency targets we have concentrated on heavily."

Friction.

Is Friction the next beach-head of increasing efficiency. Do your research on low friction technologies, surface treatments, coatings, and bearing advances i.e. bearing materials (without giving it all way) The question begs, which ones if not all are they employing of the three mentioned.

@sd
Yeah, you are observant. I did not look thoroughly at first glance. There are long bolts from the crankcase that holds everything together and only the upper part of the cylinder is cooled. Good heat dissipation where you need it but otherwise, low heat losses. Hot mid and lower part of the cylinder reduces friction as an additional benefit. After a second look, however, I have some doubts about the crankcase and suggest that another option might be that it is divided at the liner where cylinder cooling ends. It is somewhat difficult to see on the picture if this is the case. I wonder how the valve (e.g. angle) and valvetrain layout looks.

To be honest, I am not too impressed by the 380 Nm torque. The new 1.5-liter BMW diesel gives 330 Nm, which is pretty close. However, recall that this is not a racing engine but a production engine that is optimized for high efficiency. The gasoline version of this engine should provide 240 Nm, which is lower but still not too bad. In any case, this torque level is sufficient for a normal (European) car.

Great! However, I don't need 400 hp an 1.5 liters. Gimme only 2 cylinders and 1-liter displacement with 70 hp for my PHEV engine and I will be very happy and forever grateful!

The Toyota PHEV battery pack is too small to support e-drive for extended periods. A new higher performance battery pack with 2X to 3+X the capacity would fix that problem?

That will probably be available in the next generation by 2016/2017?

My point is that current PHEV's all have too big engines. As such, with the addition of a large battery pack (8-16kWh), it will be too heavy with reduced luggage space, and cost thousands more. Perhaps the reason is that current PHEV's share the same platform with corresponding HEV's, and so must have a big engine, because an HEV needs a bigger engine due to too small a battery pack.

A PHEV has a lot of power from the big battery pack and the electric motor, so, the engine must be downsized to 1/2 in order to cut cost and to reduce weight and to have more internal space.

I would not buy any existing PHEV's for that reason, but prefer to wait for a clean-sheet design that is optimized for PHEV ONLY.

Advantages of PHEV's over ICEV's are very low energy cost per mile, very low maintenance cost, petroleum independence, and an eventual option of a plug-out whereby the PHEV can supply electricity for the house or for camping, or for extended outdoor trips. At 200,000 miles, my future PHEV will have the engine and the brakes still in like-new condition, due to infrequent use. Oil change can be done every few years instead of once or twice a year.

HarveyD

You do not need 100 KW and trying to get 100 KW out of a 500 cc engine will result in an over-stressed inefficient engine. Doing a little physics and math will show that it only takes 30 KW to pull a 1500 kg (3300 lb) vehicle up a 6% grade at 120 KPH (75 MPH). Even with air drag and friction, you should need less than 50 KW and this is a rather extreme case.