Electrical assistance helps SA’s favourite bakkie reel in Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max.
The announcement in January that South Africa’s top-selling bakkie the Toyota Hilux will get a 48V mild-hybrid powertrain turned out to be big news.
The new offering still features the tried and trusted 2.8-litre turbodiesel mill which produces 150kW of power and 500 Nm of torque. But the 48V sees the addition of a compact motor generator using a belt system that charges a 7.6 kg 48V lithium battery that is stored under the rear seat.
The electrical assistance provides an additional 12kW/65Nm in short bursts.
Toyota Hilux 48V put to the test
Toyota proclaimed that the mild-hybrid system improves acceleration and fuel efficiency. So The Citizen Motoring did what we do best. We put it to the test.
The best the standard Toyota Hilux Legend 2.8 RS could manage from 0 to 100km/h during Road Test Editor Mark Jones’ was 12.38 seconds. Lots of turbo lag held it back to clock a time that would in time be destroyed by the Ford Ranger bi-turbo and Isuzu D-Max V-Cross.
But the 48V Toyota Hilux proved to be a huge improvement from the standard 2.8-litre GD-6 set-up. It ran a sprint time of 10.96 to join the Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max in the club of double cab to have dipped under 11 seconds.
Improved fuel economy
The controlled 60 to 140km/h roll on acceleration times also dropped by almost three seconds. This is very impressive. As Mark says, it’s three seconds less you’ll we spending on the wrong side of the road while overtaking.
As far as fuel consumption goes, the Toyota Hilux 48V sipped 9.5 litres of diesel for every 100km. This is also a marked improvement from the 11.3L/100km we averaged with the Legend back in 2021.
The gains are made possible by a stop/start system and idling speed being reduced from 720 to 600rpm.
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