Hi all.

Does anyone have info on the very very very first, original HSD design? One even before they started making Prii? I keep having that flashback that the original one was motor-wheel design, and then they changed it to MG-s. I even remeber reading about it and thinking - hmmm, what good will an electric motor in a wheel be, in winter slush and muddy slurry?

Thank you

 

The technique was originally patented by TRW, Thompson-Ramo-Woolridge. Patent had expired by the timeToyota discovered/uncovered it.

 

yeah, they were also badly sued by Ukrainian Antonov design bureau, in 2005, for multiple patents infringement, and motion was done in a German court to levy each Toyota with HSD.
farthest I could go back was to Hybrid SYSTEM Drive, that was later re-baptized into HSD. Sill can't determine if it was a motor=wheel system, later changed to parallel/series hybrid one.
I'll look into TRW drive, thanks for tip.