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Toyota introduced the world's first mass-produced hybrid passenger car, the Prius, in December 1997. In June 2001, Toyota developed the Toyota Hybrid System-CVT (THS-C). This new hybrid system for mini-vans was mounted on the Estima Hybrid. A new transaxle was developed for the front drive unit of the THS-C system that is compact, lightweight, and highly efficient. The unit achieves excellent driving comfort with smooth speed change by CVT control. High-level driving power control is provided via a wet multiple disc clutch. This paper introduces and explains the following aspects of the THS-C system: 1. Compact and lightweight technologies 2. High-efficiency technologies 3. Electronic CVT and clutch control technologies.

Recently two-mass flywheels have adopted in various types of engines to decrease torsional engine vibrations. A two-mass flywheel has a resonance frequency below the idle speed. Thus, it must be provided with an energy dissipating mechanism to avoid a resonance problem. Consequently, flywheel's damping effectiveness at practical engine speeds is decreased because the energy dissipating mechanism restricts relative displacement of the two-mass flywheel. In this work, a new prototype two-mass flywheel was evaluated and found to be effective in improving two important qualities of such devices; (1) its ability to decrease torsional vibrations (2) its ability to avoid resonance problems during engine startup.