When you hear the name Toyota, you more than likely immediately think of a car, particularly the Prius. An innovative product that has forever changed the auto industry for the better, Toyota is almost synonymous with innovation. But what the general masses don’t realize is that beyond the auto industry, Toyota has its hands in smaller side industries of every type imaginable. That’s why when Toyota announced their newest powerboat concept, the Toyota-28, we realized that this may be something revolutionary. And revolutionary it is.
The Toyota-28 Concept, built in partnership with fellow Japanese manufacturing corporation Yanmar, is a new class of pleasure craft, made unique by it’s innovative new hull. The hull is made from a new combination of fiberglass, carbon fiber, and aluminum. Dubbed the Toyota Hybrid Hull, in a less than subtle nod to their other successes in the auto industry, the hull combines the rigidity of an aluminum hull with the ease of construction of a fiberglass one. According to Yanmar the hull is seven times stronger than its purely fiberglass counterpart, while also weighing 10% less than a comparable aluminum hull. More importantly for the manufacturing side of the industry, the new hull’s design allows for greater flexibility in design so that Toyota can form much more complex shapes and designs that what a typical aluminum hull would allow. All these benefits lead to boats that are faster, more efficient, and sometimes more importantly, cooler looking.
With plans to scale up production this year and the first production model to hit the water in October, we’re eagerly looking forward to see how Toyota makes their concept a reality. If they have any sort of success along the lines of their previous endeavors, then we can expect to see great things coming our way later this year.
[Original Article – http://www.toyota.co.jp/marine/index.html]
