DesmoSD
Well-Known Member
GER as in Germans. Porsche and Audi. The EU will set the standard then the rest will be forced to follow. IMO, even with the GT86 and Supra, Toyota has still disappointed me. Gone are the Toyota's of the 70's, 80's, 90's and even 2000's where they just made cars that applied to everyone. Design usually met production thus pushing the envelope. Now, Toyota seems to be more reserved then how they used to function.That transition to EV and hybrid-EV is already starting with the expensive luxury GT sedans. I do like the E-Tron GT as well but I want to see it directly compared to the Porsche Taycan it is based on.
What is "GER" in this context?
As far as the Supra badge going away... you may be right that it's what Toyota will do but it will not be acceptable if they do. Letting the nameplate die because they don't want to try hard to keep the car as much a pure Supra as possible into an electrified era would just be an act of giving up... again. It happened in 2002 when, finally, the manual 2JZ-GTE would no longer pass Japanese emissions regulation but it shouldn't be their decision again.
At minimum there can be a gap of just a *few* short years before an A100 Supra model with new technology... but to abandon the entire sportscar altogether...? You may end up being correct about this but it will not be the right decision from Toyota if that's what comes to pass.
The Supra should remain the unapologetically driver-centric sportscar that it is but no matter what it's driveline will have to change with the times. It's just that the EV and battery technology is currently too bulky and heavy to do it justice in 2021. In a few years though...?
You're spot on with this decade being the beginning of the transition period away from internal combustion engines. Most immediately away from purely gas or purely diesel and into hybrids and some EVs alongside them. For many years there will be both (and whatever existing and older models are around) and eventually it'll be all EV sales. By that time the pure EV tech and battery tech will have improved a lot. Maybe hydrogen infrastructure will have as well, mostly led by the semi truck industry.
E-Fuel was first investigated by Audi and now Porsche as a suitable synthetic CO2 neutral combustible fuel for existing ICE vehicles... but who knows how the volume and cost will work out in the future. Maybe it will only be attainable by the super rich? Whatever comes of that it's not going to be conventional to drive a pure ICE vehicle indefinitely as a regular use vehicle. Certainly the fuel will not be cheap to try to do so. As a special use vehicle only a little of the time? Probably but we'll see.
Just this week Audi announced that they would stop developing new ICE drivetrains and just keep the current combustion powertrains in service until their full EV transition is complete at the end of the decade. They'll do tweaks and costly upgrades to meet new emissions standards but the engine architectures themselves will not change from this point forward however they use them for the next few years.
Most of the industry has been doing much the same.
It won't be all EV's overnight but within a couple of model years there will be many more hybrids of all kinds as EV offerings and tech slowly grow in number.
Now I think we're really off topic so I'll stop my thoughts on that where they are but in so far as getting out for sale a limited final gas-turbo-only ultimate Supra before this rather large transition perhaps it's all relevant.
I would like to see the Supra lineage continue but looking how the current Supra is and the way technology is going, a pure ICE I6 coupe doesn't sound like something would Toyota attempt again.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...-gr-supra-for-the-a100-generation-134920.html
If Toyota were to develop the Supra in-house and manufacture the car in the Land of the Rising Sun, the A90 wouldâve arrived in 2021 according to chief engineer Tetsuya Tada. The man behind the Supra is also confident the A100 will happen at the right moment, but itâll probably be different.
My thing with Tada-san and I know this will piss off a lot of fans is that he likes to b/s a lot. It's difficult to take whatever he says seriously because he often contradicts himself and is very passive. Example, vents can be made functional (they are not), the Supra is designed to be modified (locked ECU, bump steer and warranty infringement etc) and a host of other blanket statements with the GT86 back in the 2010-2012 time frame.
All it would really take is one of the major players to design a sleek looking, very quick EV sports coupe to help change the minds of petrol heads. Someone like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, BMW and the dawn of a new era would begin.
Yeah Toyota, you had one job... and you managed to split that one with BMW. Now you've sipped even more Spatan from that beer stein by making the final iteration the unobtainable just like the Germans.Exactly.. 200 units might as well be 2 because none of us mere mortals will ever have the opportunity to own one anyway. Regardless of "MSRP" It will be a who's-who bidding war for a small handful of dealers and they'll be relegated to elite collector circles from here to eternity. Pointless.... Toyota once again proving they don't have a clue and/or a single solitary F to give.
Could you imagine the ADM at the local Toyota dealership for these things. Even at 120K USD, there are plenty of options.
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