Niels Blaauw
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2019–2024
14:57 · 1.1M views · Oct 18, 2016
A Blender-animated explanation of the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive, showing how the engine, two motor-generators, planetary gearset and battery work together as an eCVT.
HN recommends it as the clearest visual explanation of how the Prius power-split hybrid actually works.
3 comments from Hacker News
I used to think the Hybrid Synergy Drive in the Prius and other Toyota hybrids was a fancy name for an electric motor bolted onto the gearbox of a regular ICE car. I’ve owned several Prii over many years. For those interested here’s a great video explaining how it really works. It blew my mind... this video
More YouTube videos about the eCVT... 1) Better -- much simpler, and above all shorter -- video explanation of the Toyota system: [LINK] . 2) Another, a little longer, but very pedagogical and beautifully animated explanation: this video . Eight years old, but apparently the "power split device" worked the same even then. Bonus -- short conversation in the comments, arriving at the same conclusion I did above: @TimpBizkit 3 weeks ago I thought the prius had a cvt 1 reply @aspecreviews 3 weeks ago It doesn't. The "CVT" is electrically simulated. Heh, yeah. 3) Titled something about "Launch Gear", but actually on the whole CVT thing (from a channel I semi-regularly watch): [LINK] . 4) A good basic look-through of the various types of CVT and their history: [LINK] . 5) Long and thorough explanation of the Prius powertrain: [LINK] . Uses a cutaway of the actual transmission, so good for getting a more concrete picture than e.g. #2 above. But... Long. 6) Another one from WeberAuto like in my parent comment, this time on the (apparently very similar) Honda system: [LINK] . So likely to be about as good as the previous one, but... 25 minutes more of this? Naah, I've had enough. There were also some from Scotty Kilmer et al, but... The less said, the better. The ones I'd most recommend are #4 for general CVT stuff and #2 for the Prius e-CVT's operating principle specifically. Well well, all in all that was quite the rabbit hole.
The eCVT that hybrids use are mechanically nothing like mechanical CVT. The only thing they share in common is they are both continuously variable. This is a great video on eCVT. this video