Automotive Energy-Saving Technologies Supported by Electricity

摘要

In the history of 120 years since the invention of automobiles and 100 years since the introduction of the mass-produced Ford model T, the Japanese automotive industry has been faced with many hardships for these 30 years, including oil crisis, emission regulations, trade friction, yen's appreciation, local production, and safety/environmental/energy problems. However, the industry has overcome such hardships with its challenging spirit and extensive knowledge and finally has become the world's top runner in name and in reality. It is no exaggeration to say that the real engineer of the success has been the implementation of automotive electronics. The implementation of automotive electronics was started from the introduction of electronic fuel injection systems equipped with micro computers for complying with emission regulations in the 1980s. After that, car electronics has evolved in terms of safety and cabin comfort, while the use of motor-driven components has been increased. These efforts bore fruit in the form of environment-compliant technologies, such as the introduction of Prius, the mass-produced hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), in 1997.