It’s been nearly two years since Toyota gave us a taste of an electric sports car, but the FT-Se concept has yet to evolve into a production model. That’s because a road-going version isn’t coming anytime soon. Instead, the company’s chairman would much rather stick to performance vehicles powered by combustion engines.
The former president of the world’s largest automaker, for the fifth consecutive year, made his preferences abundantly clear in an interview with Automotive News: “For me as the master driver, my definition of a sports car is something with the smell of gasoline and a noisy engine.” He admits there are people within Toyota pursuing a fun EV, but he’d much rather stick with the good ol’ ICE.
It’s not that he is completely against the idea of an electric sports car, but like you and me, we all have our priorities. Akio Toyoda isn’t the typical high-ranking executive cooped up in an office all day. He’s Toyota’s “master driver” with an alter ego: Morizo. He took on this name back in 2007 for the Nürburgring 24-hour endurance race and has been using it ever since. More recently, you might remember this name from a special-edition GR Corolla and the lesser-known Lexus LBX Morizo RR crossover.
Toyoda admits it’s “not exciting” to race EVs because the battery doesn’t last on a circuit for more than an hour. In other words, the company’s chairman argues that the current technology isn’t up to snuff, adding it would be “a race of charging time or battery exchange.” He prefers to enter endurance races anyway, so EVs are not feasible yet.
Toyota’s chairman has already expressed his reluctance regarding EVs fully taking over. A little over a year ago, Toyoda said electric cars will never represent more than 30 percent of global sales. Even so, we’ve noticed how the Japanese automotive giant has increased its zero-emission efforts by expanding its EV lineup globally. Hopefully, there will be a sports car to stand out from the current crop of SUVs and China’s bZ3 and bZ7 sedans.
Hideaki Iida, the project manager for the Gazoo Racing Design Group, told our sister site InsideEVs that a production version of the FT-Se would come after 2026. The low-slung coupe is being engineered with all-wheel drive by installing an electric motor at each axle, according to the car’s chief engineer Fumihiko Hazama. The e-motors will apparently work with a next-gen battery pack, enabling a 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) sprint in three seconds and a top speed of 155 mph (250 km/h).
But before Toyota dips its toes into the electric sports car segment, it has alluded to an expansive fun ICE lineup. It has already said the Supra will live on beyond the current generation and has dropped hints about bringing back the Celica and/or MR2. Additionally, the new GT3-spec race car is widely believed to spawn a Lexus-badged road car. Rumors from Japan are already suggesting a next-gen 86 is in development, so all seems to be well in the sports car world.
A couple of months ago, Toyota Australia’s Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Sean Hanley, assured enthusiasts that “combustion engines and manual transmissions will be around for a long, long time,” because the company knows petrolheads crave the “snap, crackle, and pop” of an ICE.
Who knew Toyota would be the savior of fun cars?
