Toyota Teases GR Line Up: Supra MK6, Celica MK8, MR2 MK4, 86 MK3 and GR GT

[26StratMT]

If the EV Lexus flops I wonder if Toyota has a backup plan where they could make a verson an ICE version with the GR GT's V8

I’m not sure it really can flop.
While it looks like they plan to make a lot more of them than the last LFA it still seems like it’s going to be a very low volume halo car.
They will probably sell all of them they make but I suspect demand for the GR GT will be higher.
I know which one I would buy between the two.

I’m sure if they really had to they could swap in the GR GT drivetrain but I doubt it will be necessary.

They will get out of it what they intend, a test bed for cutting edge EV technology and a new Lexus halo car.
I feel like Lexus is positioning itself gradually into an all EV brand.

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[KahnBB6]

I think it’s difficult to do otherwise currently, at least at a price point that isn’t in super car territory. Current non-exotic batteries are just too heavy and still pretty expensive!

Current battery tech is the first big factor. The second biggest factor is the design philosophy. One is a current technology limitation while the other comes down to sum of all choices the designers make that determines the character a vehicle has as a driving machine (or the opposite of that) even when faced with hard tech limitations of the moment.

The latter is the easiest part to solve immediately. The former is what has been taking time to achieve new production ready improvements on.

Yet despite this we have for several years seen a lot of EVs come out that really don't even feel or look like they were designed for people who love true fun driving machines.

IE: How is a tall crossover four door "coupe" with an upright interior with a bland generic dash dominated by a central touchscreen a "sportscar"? Maybe it's fast in a straight line but it's... boring and uninspiring.

...

Current production battery cell/pack technology with lithium-ion is very heavy, not very power dense for the size of each cell and has both external and internal thermal limitations. These are exacerbated when driven hard or on a track.

The pack size usually takes up an astronomical amount of floorpan area and tends to raise the seating position, hood-line and belt-line into crossover/CUV territory. Everything you don't want with any kind of good looking car or especially a sportscar, hot hatch, muscle car, superar etc.

Solid state technology will hopefully be the first significant improvement.

I won't be surprised if the GR GT (not the GT3 variant) will also a have solid state pack for its small battery hybrid system which they're fitting at the rear.

....

The rest of it goes further beyond what the battery tech can do for weight, placement and packaging.

How do you program it? How is the interior set up with driver focus rather than screen focus? How is the driving position laid out? Does it have a combination of traditional "unnecessary" driveline components if their inclusion might actually make the experience more fun? Does it have a proper round steering wheel or one of those terrible yokes that otherwise only exist on drag cars, actual F1 cars and airplanes for very good reasons.

See Toyota's EV AE86 manual transmission concept for example. Or what about Ferrari's recent fake manual that nonetheless makes you operate it like a manual-- something Toyota has also experimented with in mundane (so far) test mules.

Dodge was supposed to debut a partly electro-mechanical transmission in the highest end spec of their new Charger EV... and then they did absolutely nothing with that (in addition to the thing being way too big, too heavy, too numb and being priced way too high).

Sound is a factor too. But no one has yet decided what it should be, just that it's needed but also shouldn't be something utterly stupid. Ferrari, Dodge and Ford have all toyed with amplifying one or more aspects of the actual EV electronics. So far none of them have settled on anything that is universally loved. But you have to have sound and it cannot be whatever blah approach most regular EVs use.

Of all the companies playing in that space Toyota is the only one that I see actually trying to experiment with any way they can think of to unconventionally to build future EV sportscars with aspects that make them soulful, compelling and engaging. Insanely low 0-60 times aren't their main focus it seems which is a good thing.