Does Toyota license their eCVT to Ford?

[Flatcoat]

I am sure I recall once reading Ford use a licensed version of Toyota’s eCVT? Anyone know if there is any truth in it?  

[Cyker]

I heard that too, but I don't think it's in any cars available in the UK. Mainly the USA I think?

 

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

See: https://eepower.com/news/toyota-grants-ford-hybrid-car-license/#:~:text=The companies stated that Ford,than 100 hybrid technology patents.

[skidlid]

20 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

See: https://eepower.com/news/toyota-grants-ford-hybrid-car-license/#:~:text=The companies stated that Ford,than 100 hybrid technology patents.

That refers to "hybrid technology" and there is absolutely no mention of eCVT.

Its also should be noted its from 2004, 20 years ago. Did eCVT exist in its current form back then?

[Cyker]

They're not going to give you a fully itemized list you know  

Since there isn't anything you can point to and say "That's the CVT" in the hybrid system at all, it doesn't surprise there isn't any specific mention of an eCVT as it doesn't exist.

eCVT is just a term coined to describe how the hybrid system *behaves* like a CVT, but in reality there isn't even really anything you'd traditionally call a gearbox in it. The 'gearing' is all just clever trickery done with MG1.

That's why I roll my pedantic eyes when people say it has an eCVT gearbox - It doesn't. I'd defy anyone to point at a specific component in it and say "That's the eCVT gearbox".

The closest thing to a gearbox in the hybrid system is the planetary gearset called the PSD, but it provides absolutely no multi-gear ratios at all, unlike a normal gearbox, but is just a way to link MG1, MG2 and the ICE together. I realized a while back it's actually just acting as a differential between the three.

Since everything in the system is so integral to how it works, it's safe to assume that if Ford licensed it, they'd have access to the whole unit, since it won't work without all the other parts - There's no "eCVT gearbox" you can take out and put on another engine for instance. It's all one 'thing'!

 

[Gerg]

If I remember correctly, in the (final model) Ford Mondeo, there was a hybrid option which used a Toyota-licensed drivetrain, attached to a 2 ltr Ford engine. There were other Ford models, but they were principly for the US domestic market only.

Unusually, all the European-sold hybrids were made in the US Ford factory, unlike the regular Mondeo models, which came from Germany, and finally Spain. I have a notion the 'box' was made in Japan.

I think there is the (typically excellent) Weber Uni. teardown of one of those boxes on YouTube.

This is just from memory, maybe some errors in the above.

The car was fitted with a variant of Ford's 'anti-noise' speaker-fed cabin-located sound reduction system. I'm sure others used it too, it wasn't Ford's invention. Is it around now?