The A70TTR Dedication Thread!

[A70TTR]

I wanted to mention something as I get this mess back on track...

VW (the 2nd largest automaker on the planet) has stated that their last petrol powered vehicles will be released in 2026. So, as Tada has commented both publicly and privately, the A90 is likely the last purely petrol powered Supra, or at least the last non-hybrid car. We are going to start seeing a huge shift soon, and it saddens me that the things I love will start to disappear. Some other companies have already said they plan to follow the same ideology.

VW article

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[KahnBB6]

^^ The VW announcement was very significant. They haven’t been the first to make such a mission statement in recent months but as you say... most if not all of the major automakers have said something similar and this coming from a company as big as VW... every other industry player seems to have taken notice.

Ford has been hinting at this for a while and GM pretty much made the same move alongside their recent model discontinuations and their moving of the chief engineer of the current Camaro to all future EV projects for Chevrolet (if I have correctly read a recent LNN article attesting to this).

I share your sentiment, A70. And I know it’s a dead horse (though I hope not at least for GRMN cars) but this A90 being the last non-electrified Supra is all the more reason why a manual turbo-6 version is important now before it becomes mostly unfeasible to include just on a technical level.

Since it’s going to be like an industry-wide tidal wave shift I’m ok with electrified drivetrains personally just so long as the *sportscars* and *hot hatches* (etc) are treated with the same enthusiast and driver-centric focus as we wish for and expect. You know... basically the polar opposite of autonomous even if electric drivetrains rule them going forward.

I really wish for passion for the machines and passion for driving them to stay strong.

I am going to miss the best gas engine performance Toyota has to offer. I certainly will. This is a generation of pure performance cars right now that we will remember very fondly.

Hope this reply isn’t keeping us too far off. It’s just too important a current point to not to respond to.

 

[A70TTR]

Yeah, thats something I was semi arguing with someone through PM about, and that is that when an automaker the size of VW makes that statement then everyone else is going to follow not far behind.

What that means is that the economies of scale and amount of people buying into electric cars is going to spike through the roof. It's also the same reason investors are keeping Tesla afloat; they know payday is coming whether Tesla grows exponentially as a result and/or they get bought out.

It becomes more and more evident why nearly all the money at Toyota is in alternative fuel and autonomous driving.

 

[DevonK]

Fully electric cars are never going to be ubiquitous, at least for the foreseeable future - there are too many urbanites living in condos or apartments that have no access to plugin power. The cost to retrofit a condo garage for high-speed charging at each parking spot would be substantial. Non-plugin hybrids followed by hydrogen-powered cars will be needed to get off gas completely.

 

[kona61]

Fully electric cars are never going to be ubiquitous, at least for the foreseeable future - there are too many urbanites living in condos or apartments that have no access to plugin power. The cost to retrofit a condo garage for high-speed charging at each parking spot would be substantial. Non-plugin hybrids followed by hydrogen-powered cars will be needed to get off gas completely.

You're thinking of this the wrong way. Electric charge points will likely become like gas stations today. Charging and battery technology are progressing extremely fast. I doubt it will be long before electric charge times become similar to filling up, and the ranges capable become similar to gas cars as well.

 

[A70TTR]

Boom, replied before I even could. That's exactly right...

None of it happens in a day, but with 2026 being the year noted, you can expect a massive push for charging stations and infrastructure from now until then.

 

[McWicked]

Once supercapictors come down in size and cost, things will really change.

 

[A70TTR]

graphene is another big one, and Toyota is pushing hard for hydrogen fuel cell (which is my bet for the future long term).

on the grid side, nuclear is absolutely the way to go, but we have to push all of the ignorance/fear around it out first.

 

[McWicked]

on the grid side, nuclear is absolutely the way to go, but we have to push all of the ignorance/fear around it out first.

Preach my brother, preach!

 

[KahnBB6]

graphene is another big one, and Toyota is pushing hard for hydrogen fuel cell (which is my bet for the future long term).

on the grid side, nuclear is absolutely the way to go, but we have to push all of the ignorance/fear around it out first.

Graphene anodes and cathodes, lower use of cobalt in current gen l-ion, glass or polymer elctrolyte l-ion, and possibly this Flouride-Ion tech Honda is working on (though there are so many flavors different corporations are throwing money at now). Solid state batteries are touted by pretty much all of them from Toyota to Dyson (yes, the Dyson vacuum company) but I think that type actually encompasses a wide range of approaches at the moment.

Hydrogen still seems like a problem of infrastructure and so far more power in than out per unit of H2.

Aside, I had a chance to drive a friend’s Mirai a couple of months ago and while I felt it was like a dimensionally enormous Prius I came away impressed with how it drove as an all-around four passenger sedan. The whirring of the fuel cell stack fans was cool. If Toyota can improve on it for all genres of cars including true enthusiast oriented H2’s I’ll be interested.

As for nuclear... yes and yes. The fear is tied to the continued use of severely outdated and flawed fission reactor designs. It is frustrating that not much push has gone behind molten salt thorium nuclear reactors which are incapable of meltdowns such as we’ve seen so far.

 

[McWicked]

Car guys in 2048...

Guy 1: "So I ditched the OEM 4 pole stator and went with the Maxwell Racing 6 pole. Of course that meant I had to swap out the controller. Picked up the HellaArc 400 for that. That way I can go asynchronous down the road if I want too..."
Guy 2: Nice! Why didn't you go with the MagCat XR4? They can handle some pretty low windings...
Guy 1: Yeah, but their app sucks."
Guy 2: True.

 

[A70TTR]

Hahaha, yeah pretty much how I picture it too.

 

[DevonK]

You're thinking of this the wrong way. Electric charge points will likely become like gas stations today. Charging and battery technology are progressing extremely fast. I doubt it will be long before electric charge times become similar to filling up, and the ranges capable become similar to gas cars as well.

Maybe. But there have been a lot of rosy prognostications about advances in battery tech and charging in the last 20 years that have failed to materialize. The track record to date hasn't been impressive.

 

[A70TTR]

Hard to make progress when the industry doesn't care or lobbies against it. You'll now have billions and billions backing it and everyone jumping on board.

Again, doesn't happen in a day, but this changes things immensely.

 

[McWicked]

Maybe. But there have been a lot of rosy prognostications about advances in battery tech and charging in the last 20 years that have failed to materialize. The track record to date hasn't been impressive.

Accuracy depends on who's making the predictions. If it's people like Popular Mechanics, then you can save your money and skip buying an electric car. Just wait until next summer when the flying ones come out!

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