Toyota, the Japanese car manufacturer, through its Motorsport GmbH division, is hoping to continue its success in the world of EV racing as it prepares to take part in the Pikes Peak hill climb in Colorado at the end of June.
Toyota hopes to defend their record at the annual race, with the use of a new and improved version of its record holding electric race car, the TMG EV P002, which is said to offer more power through the power train to deliver higher performance from the motor.
Toyota has announced that the vehicle will be in North Carolina for a while whilst engineers make some "aerodynamic upgrades to the Radical-based chassis as well as track testing."
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One of the main changes that Toyota has made, and hopes will prove decisive in earning another victory, is the off-board battery-to-battery charging system that it plans to use. A DC charger linked to a 42kW lithium ion battery will serve as a mobile charging station for the P002 whilst it is up in the mountains participating in the race.
Cluadia Brasse, Toyota's executive coordinator of strategic EV development, said that, "the TMG EV P002 has a perfect history of three records from three attempts, none of which have been beaten, so we have high standards to maintain. But as well as the electric powertrain itself, we are successfully innovating in the area of charging infrastructure. It is easy to take this for granted when you are working in a well-supplied laboratory or workshop. But motorsport doesn't always take place in such an environment; you have to deal with varying levels of infrastructure and uncertainty regarding the power grid. The potential for off-board battery-to-battery charging technology is great, particularly in the world of motorsport where infrastructure limitations will increasingly become a source of frustration for electric motorsport."
By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More