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- My name is Ken and I've worked in the Product Sales
and Engagement department at Toyota Motor North America.
We're in beautiful San Antonio, Texas
and I've got an all new Tundra right here next to me.
I've got Jay and Craig from R&D up in Michigan.
They're gonna help us answer some questions
on this awesome new Tundra - and a Tundra
that's so much easier to see now that we've taken the cab,
the doors, the fenders, the bed off.
This truck here is the hybrid version of this truck.
So, we've got the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6.
We've got the one-motor hybrid system,
10-speed automatic transmission,
and our traditional two-speed transfer case.
This makes 437 horsepower and 583 pound feet of torque,
which is incredibly impressive.
But, what puts us all together
is that one-motor hybrid system right there.
Craig, can you tell me a little bit about what's going on
in this orange piece here?
- Sure, so this orange piece is what we call
the front module.
It's sandwiched between the engine and the transmission.
Inside we have two components.
We have the motor generator and we have a clutch
that disconnects the engine
from the rest of the drivetrain.
So, when that clutch is open,
the engine can turn off and we can drive
in pure electric mode. Or if that clutch is closed,
we can turn the engine on and have power go from the engine
and the combination of the engine and the electric motor
through the wheels.
- That is an awesome feature and that really sets
this truck apart in this half-ton segment.
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The motor is impressive.
It's a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6.
And though this one is the hybrid.
If it's not the hybrid version,
it still makes an impressive 389 horsepower
and 479 pound-feet of torque.
Now, these engine options are great,
but they don't mean anything
if we don't have a great frame.
For '22, we've got a fully boxed frame front to rear
and we've got some new welding techniques,
Jay, don't we? it's called Dejima welding.
- So, as Ken mentioned,
we do have a brand new frame front to rear.
We have a 20% improvement in strength and rigidity
for this overall frame setup,
as well as a 10% reduction in mass.
So, it's really impressive what our engineers
and our manufacturing staff been able to do with steel.
If we can look in closely the box frame now -
compared to our previous triple deck frame -
is very unique design,
completely closed-section front to rear.
and what we're doing is non-linear laser welding
on our blanks.
This puts our high strength material,
our thicker gauges that we need it,
where we need it to save mass.
Now, it's gonna be hard to see, but if you aim in here,
you can see it as a very thin seam along our frame rail.
This is actually a different strength material,
different thickness material that compensate
for high stresses and high loads in our frame.
And we apply this in our frame,
in our front kicks, in our rear kicks, along the frame.
We also have some very unique laser welding
in the straight sections as well
to increase our strength and capacity.
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- So, we've got this fully boxed frame front to rear,
and we actually even increase the width
a little bit in the back
to improve towing because this new truck
is a premium towing machine.
As we move back in this chassis,
this is the hybrid battery.
And moving on the other big story on this new Tundra
is the multi-link rear suspension.
Gone are the leaf springs that you would find
in Tundra current gen.
New-generation Tundra is using a multi-link rear suspension.
This one has the optional load-leveling rear air suspension.
Jay, is there anything you want to point out
on this multi-link rear suspension, how it came to be,
or maybe a couple of features of it?
- The main point for our multi-link suspension
was to really improve the load capability,
the ride and handling and the comfort for our customers
as they drive down the road.
As you mentioned, Ken, we did widen the back frame rails.
This helps with stability of a heavy load,
and also allows us to move our suspension points outward
to give better efficiency for damping
and controlling for our spring rates.
If you notice down below in the suspension itself,
the blue highlighted areas
are our new multi-link suspension.
The key point is we also have a lateral control bar.
This helps greatly with our tow stability,
for side to side ride and handling and agility.
This suspension setup that we're seeing here is unique.
This is showing our rear air suspension.
So bill one, all of our trim grades
from SR5 up to 1794, the air suspension is available.
So we can use it for load leveling.
When we put a high load or a high tongue weight,
the vehicle returns to the proper posture
for riding, handling and the suspension tuning.
- That's just a sneak peek of this new frame,
but what's amazing is how much time and effort
went into developing this new truck
and how incredible this new frame,
this new engine, hybrid system,
makes this truck ride and drive.