An all-electric Toyota sports car may not be as close as it seemed last year.
Tomoya Takahashi, president of the Japanese automaker’s Gazoo Racing (GR) division, recently told CarExpert that his team will build cars with internal combustion engines for as long as possible. There also doesn’t seem to be any interest in building an electric vehicle in the near future.
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In the first half of 2024, several manufacturers, including Aston Martin, abandoned their previously announced plan to go all-electric by the end of the decade. Toyota has made no such commitment and, if Takahashi’s words are to be believed, remains as committed as ever to building gasoline-powered vehicles.
When speaking with the Australian website, the executive said Gazoo Racing wanted to use ICE powertrains “as much as possible”. He also suggested that his division will not simply continue to use the same gasoline engines currently in the GR Supra, GR Corolla and GR86, but will instead devote resources to developing new mills.
“There may be a day in the future when engines are banned, but internal combustion engines are not bad, the enemy is carbon,” he told CarExpert. “We are investing in the engines of the future.”
Takahashi is not entirely opposed to electrification, however. The GR boss said he saw hybrid technology being used to “reduce carbon emissions” and mentioned wanting to explore the potential of carbon-neutral synthetic fuels. He also acknowledged that while full electrification is likely, he doesn’t know exactly when it will happen.
The executive’s quotes will certainly be welcomed by the type of enthusiasts who believe a vehicle must be powered solely by gas to qualify as a sports car. His words will be less comforting, as Motor1.com points out, for those intrigued by the battery-powered FT-Se concept that Toyota showed off last fall. This electric vehicle, whose design owes a heavy debt to the beloved MR2, would feature a dual-motor powertrain powerful enough to rival Porsche’s upcoming electric 718 Cayman. If Takahashi seriously thought GR wasn’t interested in building an electric vehicle, that suggests the concept is unlikely to go into production later this decade, as some had hoped.
Fortunately, Takahashi only seemed to be talking about GR, so the successor to the LFA, known until now as “Electrified Sport”, seems to remain a possibility.
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