I asked the boss of Toyota his biggest fear about the future of cars, and the answer was EVs

Toyota seems to be a bit behind the times when it comes to electric cars. Brands like Volkswagen and Kia currently sell six different EVs, but until about a year ago Toyota only sold one: the bZ4X. It recently added the Urban Cruiser and bZ4X Touring to the lineup, but even then it’s still quite a limited selection.

Lexus, which is owned by Toyota, also recently announced that it was canning its electric saloon car, the LF-ZC, which would’ve taken on the BMW i3 and Mercedes C-Class Electric.

I recently had a chat with Akio Toyoda, chairman of the board of directors for Toyota, about some exciting projects from its GR sport department which you’ll find out about soon, and during this conversation he shed some light on Toyoda’s stance towards electric cars.

Toyoda is a petrolhead, through and through. He’s spent a lot of his career racing under the pseudonym Morizo, and he also tests Toyota’s GR models, such as the GR Yaris, to destruction on track in pursuit of driving perfection.

I asked him what his biggest fear is about the future of the car, and this is what he said:

“Everybody is shifting to BEVs, this is the biggest fear for me. Three or four years ago, I was the only one to say to the media that I love smell, I love sound and I love engines, and I want to keep the jobs for engine suppliers.

“But it seems to me that I’m the only one. I feel very alone.”

Toyoda acknowledged the need to make carbon neutral cars, as well as the need to make cars which turn a profit, but they don’t excite him.

“The automobile is my toy. I want to make the car which I want to keep in my garage. If I have to make only carbon neutral cars, it’s not exciting.”

With emissions regulations getting stricter, making petrol-powered sports cars won’t be viable forever. This hasn’t stopped Toyota from making them though.

We saw the GR GT concept last year – a V8-powered sports car which it says will be launched in 2027. A new mid-engined sports car has also been rumoured for a while, and Toyota is also working on hydrogen combustion engines.

This would keep internal combustion engines and manual gearboxes alive, while using a carbon-neutral fuel. As a fellow petrolhead, I love that Toyota is still plowing ahead with sports cars and hot hatches at a time when a lot of other manufacturers have given up.

Going electric doesn’t have to be boring though, because there are plenty of manufacturers making sporty EVs which are really good fun to drive. The Hyundai Ioniq 5N has clever simulated gear shifts which feel pretty much real, and it’s a riot through the bends. The Alpine A290 is also pretty agile, and Genesis recently unveiled the bonkers-looking GV60 Magma with 650hp.

Electric cars do have the potential to be fun and hugely powerful, but for hardcore petrolheads, like Akio Toyoda, you just can’t replace the sound and feel of an internal-combustion engine.

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