Ahead of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship season, Toyota Racing has proved that its new hybrid vehicle can survive the rigours of a 30-hour endurance run.

The Toyota TS030 Hybrid took part in a three-day session, at Paul Ricard in France, and in just its second full test it tackled the 30-hour run.

The session was started by Sebastien Buemi, in his first test as a Toyota Racing driver, and also included the likes of Hiroaki Ishiura, Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima. It ended with Toyota Racing having achieved its goal of evaluating the hybrid car over long distances.

According to Hisatake Murata, the hybrid project leader, it was the first time that the Toyota HYBRID system had taken part in such a long test session. He stated that a trouble-free week was never anticipated but although the car did encounter a few issues there was nothing major. Now the company has a lot of information about how the powertrain behaves and hopes to refine it further ahead of the season.

Its first race will be the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps – with another round of testing scheduled for April.

It is Toyota’s seventh hybrid car production area outside Japan – Taiwan has now started production and sales of the Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Production of the vehicle is taking place at Kuozui’s Kuanying Plant with an initial annual production capacity set at 7,000 vehicles. The hybrid cars will be targeted specifically at the domestic market. Prices are expected to vary from 1,069,000-1,399,000 Taiwan dollars – around US$36,137-$47,292.

Toyota continues to enjoy vast success with its hybrid cars. Its sales of hybrid vehicles reached approximately 3.6million units at the end of 2011.

It’s made a flying start in its native country of Japan– and now Toyota is ready to ramp up production of the Toyota Aqua Hybrid.

The Japanese carmaker will increase the vehicle’s production capacity within three months, according to the company’s senior managing officer Takeshi Shirane.

Reports in the Nikkei outline that the vehicle received around 120,000 orders in the month after its December launch. As such, Shirane is considering introducing Aqua production at the Miyagi plant of Central Motor.

Ever wondered how far Ford has come in its commitment to hybrid technology? Just take a look at its list of hybrid patents.

The American carmaker now holds 461 patents – that’s up from just 10 in 2000. Indeed over the last three years the number of inventions submitted to its legal team for consideration as patents has leapt by 25 per cent.

It began with the development of the Ford Escape Hybrid back in the early 2000s – but was slow to move on with Ford having only around 30 hybrid patents in 2002.

However, its activity leapt in the mid-2000s and was followed by the launch of the One Ford strategy – aimed at creating more efficient innovation.

Ahead of its launch in mid-March in the USA, Toyota has revealed more details about the latest member of the Prius family – the Prius C (known in Japan as the Toyota Aqua), including its pricing details.

The vehicle will have a starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $18,950 – that’s lower than the first generation Toyota Prius when it was introduced 12 years ago.

The Prius C (“C” standing for “City”) aims to strike an ideal balance between style, fuel efficiency, intelligent connectivity and affordability. It is conscious of the fact that many eco-conscious drivers may previously have been unable to afford hybrid cars – and so Toyota has focused on making the vehicle more compact and lighter to reduce its price.

On its launch in the USA, the Toyota Prius C, which will be targeted at young families, will come with four equipment levels:

- The Prius C One – With an MSRP of $18,950 the vehicle includes power windows, automatic climate control, door locks, hill start assist control, remote keyless entry, four-speaker audio, multi-information display, Bluetooth hands-free controls, rear window wiper and projector beam halogen headlamps.

- The Prius C Two – With an MSRP of $19,900 it adds tonneau cover, a six-way adjustable driver seat, a 60/40 split fold-down rear seat, engine immobiliser, six-speaker audio and cruise control.

- The Prius C Three – For $21,635 drivers benefit from display audio with navigation; touch tracer display; smart key system; and navigation and entune.

- The Prius C Four – Adds SofTex trimmed seats, alloy wheels, fog lamps and heated front seats for $23,230.

In addition, the Toyota Prius C comes with several driving modes – including ECO mode and an EV mode. ECO mode maximises fuel savings in all driving conditions; while EV mode keeps the vehicle in electric-only mode for longer at lower speeds – in certain conditions the vehicle can travel up to 25mph or for half a mile in electric mode.

The Swedish city of Gothenburg is about to be inundated with hybrid buses after Volvo Buses received an order for 25 Volvo 7700 hybrid buses from Goteborgs Sparvagar (Gothenburg Tramways), which operates on behalf of Vasttrafik.

Volvo has now sold 100 hybrid buses across the Nordic countries with the Volvo 7700 hybrid buses proving particularly popular.

The vehicles feature a small diesel engine and an electric motor. Its fuel consumption is cut down thanks to regenerative braking; and the diesel engine is shut off at bus stops meaning that the bus can operate emission free on electricity. Even the emissions when the diesel engine is running are comparatively low thanks to the use of biodiesel.

According to Leif Blomqvist, the chairman of the board of Vasttrafik, hybrid buses represent an important element of its bid to convert to fossil free bus traffic and reduce fuel consumption while lowering emissions and noise levels.

For the first time in its 80^th run of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Audi will compete with a total of four LMP1 sports cars – with two to be equipped with hybrid drive.

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, the head of Audi Motorsport, commented that the decision to introduce hybrid technology forLe Mans was both ambitious and challenging. He believes however, that the first test results have been highly encouraging and he is now intrigued to see how the technology will perform alongside the ultra lightweight vehicles on the race track atLe Mans.

In addition, Audi Sport Team Joest will take a two-pronged approach to the FIA World Endurance Championship. It plans to field additional cars at selected races, such as the 12hour Sebring race; and the six-hour Spa-Francorchamps race.  

Meanwhile, the new Audi sports prototype with hybrid drive for the Le Mans classic will be presented at the end of February ahead of its first competitive outing in the six-hour Spa Francorchamps on May 5.

It was announced at the North American International Auto Show last month – and now it is official: Hyundai will offer a lifetime hybrid battery replacement guarantee on all new models of the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid in the USA.

In a first-of-its-kind for the industry, the Hyundai Lifetime Hybrid Battery Replacement Guarantee means that the battery will be replaced and recycling costs will be covered for old battery packs – and this will be free of charge to Hyundai Sonata Hybrid owners. It does not apply to lease and commercial vehicles – or vehicles serviced outside the USA.

According to Michael O’Brien, the vice president of corporate and product planning, there is limited demand for hybrid cars because of the uncertainty surrounding the technology and its performance. He hopes that the lifetime battery replacement guarantee will help to ease some of these fears.

The Hyundai Sonata Hybrid comes with Hybrid Blue Drive technology and a lithium-polymer battery pack that have been developed by LGChem.

Keep your eye on the FIA World Endurance Championships, with Toyota Racing to introduce its new TS030 Hybrid at the event.

The successor to both the TS010 and TS020 vehicles that participated inLe Mansraces during the 1990s, it marks the first time a vehicle has competed in the World Endurance Championships with a hybrid system. Toyota Racing also plans to enter the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 5; and the Le Mans 24 Hours on June 16-17.

Included in the TS030 is the THS-R powertrain which is meant to deliver maximum performance. It includes a V8 normally aspirated petrol engine and a hybrid system with capacitor storage. As with Toyota’s road cars, energy is generated during braking, and the TS030 can operate in electric only mode – meaning it achieves zero emissions and zero fuel consumption. Also included is a carbon fibre LMP1 chassis.

The vehicle was tested at a French track, which included running in darkness.

According to Yoshiaki Kinoshita, the team’s president, Toyota Racing is realistic about its ambitions. Though it would love to win Le Mans, its target this year is to show the performance levels of the car and the powertrain.

It was another successful year for Honda’s range of hybrid cars – as they surpassed 800,000 cumulative sales worldwide at the end of December, 2011.

Honda Insight hybrid deals on TheHybridCarWebsite.co.uk

It has been 12 years and two months since the first generation Honda Insight was introduced in Japan in November, 1999. More recently, Honda has introduced six new hybrid cars in the last three years – with stalwarts in its line-up including the Insight, Civic Hybrid and Accord Hybrid.

During 2011 alone it sold approximately 200,000 hybrid cars – that’s up 30 per cent compared to 2010. Indeed sales over the last three years have surpassed 500,000 units; while in Japan, the ratio of hybrid vehicles exceeded 45 per cent of all of Honda’s new vehicle registrations during December.

Now Honda hopes to continue its hybrid car success in 2012 – it currently sells seven hybrid models in 50 countries around the world and is set to launch the ILX, the first Acura model with a hybrid system, in North America during the spring.