The Toyota Yaris is best known as a car.
Yeah, that's it. Thanks largely to the "It's a Car!" campaign, that's all we've got. It's a tiny little hatchback surrounded by other tiny hatchbacks that most people like more, like the Fiesta, 500, and Fit. It is, however, about to be something much, much greater than just "a car!"
The Hybrid R is going to use a similar supercapacitor to the one in Toyota's Le Mans race car to store and discharge energy more quickly than a battery. This is hooked up to three 60 hp electric motors. Two of them power the rear wheels directly, while another is mounted in the center of the car. The central motor helps charge the supercapacitor under braking, and gives extra grunt to the rear wheels when the front slip. Powering the front wheels is a 1.6L turbo-four that produces a healthy 234 hp.
This thing is going to be crazy.
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[via Toyota]
