In 1983 Toyota experimented with VVTI ,Coil on Plug and VCM.

[eljefino]

It’s been a while - but Honda got snubbed from a different angle in the 80s also. If memory serves, they actually had a carburetor tech that was capable of basically doubling the effective MPG for vehicles back then. i recall reading numbers that were over 60mpg in the typical small, 2000 lb econobox. it was denied for use because the emissions were high per volume of exhaust. The irony was that since it put out so much less exhaust per mile, it was still a gain, but the rulemakers weren’t looking at emissions per mile, they were looking at emissions per volume.

Run lean, get NOx.

What gets me is that NOx causes ground level smog in the LA basin. So have a car "know" it's there via one of several technologies, behave itself there, and adjust itself for better MPG and CO2 emissions when it's in, say, Nevada.

 

[MSCH]

Only a few vehicles could meet the strict regulations. It took microprocessors and better catalyst technology to really start seeing a huge reduction in vehicle emissions.

my understanding is that the biggest driver of fuel injection was the inability to cure high emissions when the throttle was snapped shut on deceleration. seems the high vacuum signal as well as high engine speed they just could never solve with a feedback carb... something like that.

gasoline fuel injection has been around a long time, Germans were using it in their aircraft in WW2.. but I'd say the advent of electronics and computers is what made EFI practical and relaible.

 

[ford46guy]

Things gotta start somewhere. They also designed the ecvt and hybrid prototype in the late 80's. Bluetooth was also invented in the late 80's.

Toyota bought the hybrid patents from GE. GE RD had a hybrid car in the 70s, problem back them was battery tech. They did much to improve it obviously.