Toyota’s Akio Toyoda: “A Sports Car Must Have a Gas Engine”
Toyota’s racing-mad chairman just told Automotive News that real sports cars still need pistons, noise, and high-octane perfume—and he’s got the Nürburgring battle scars to back it up.
🔑 Key Points
- “A sports car must have a gas engine… I prefer the smell of gasoline and a noisy engine,” Akio Toyoda tells Automotive News.
- Chairman doubles-down: internal-combustion can co-exist with carbon-neutral goals.
- Despite secret EV projects, Toyoda admits he still “prefers the smell of gasoline”.
- As “Morizo,” he’s raced the 24 Hours of Nürburgring three times—including a class win in 2014.
- Expect Toyota’s GR family (Supra, GR86, GR Corolla, GR Yaris) to keep banging away at redline, even as EVs multiply.
Grab a cold one, purists, Akio Toyoda just gave you the quote you’ll be screen-printing onto T-shirts for the next decade (hmm… perhaps we should put out a new design with this ourselves, thx Akio). In a fresh sit-down with Automotive News, the Toyota chairman laid it out like a heel-and-toe downshift:
“A sports car must have a gas engine. I am open to the idea of an EV, but I prefer the smell of gasoline and a noisy engine.”
Mic. Drop.
This isn’t marketing fluff from a suit who last drove a Camry hybrid to the golf course. Toyoda is “Morizo,” the pseudonym under which he’s hustled factory GR racers around the Green Hell. Back in 2009 he finished third in class at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Five years later he bagged a class win and 13th overall.1
And in 2019 he strapped into the No. 90 GR Supra, grabbing another podium in class. If anyone’s earned the right to talk about the smell of gasoline, it’s the guy who’s breathed it for 25 straight hours with a helmet on.
But wait, doesn’t Toyota have battery buzz of its own? Absolutely. The same interview confirms engineers are “working on battery-powered sports cars,” yet Toyoda’s personal compass still points to combustion. He even slides a policy grenade into the chat:
“There is still a role for engines as a practical means of achieving carbon neutrality.”
Translation: don’t write the obituary for high-revving four-pots or turbo inline-sixes just yet. Synthetic fuels, hybrid assists, hydrogen combustion—Toyota’s exploring all of it, but the soundtrack stays analog for as long as regulators allow.2 That philosophy already bleeds into the GR lineup.
The GR86 delivers 228 naturally-aspirated ponies and tail-happy balance, and if you get the super rare GR86 Yuzu Edition, you’ll look like Pikachu while drifting, neat. The GR Supra’s BMW-sourced straight-six now sings through a manual gearbox. The GR Corolla stuffs 300 angry horses into a rally-bred AWD hatch while the GR Yaris terrorizes every market lucky enough to get it. If Toyoda’s words mean anything—and they do—it’s that the next chapters of each won’t be silent.
Key Takeaway: When the company’s top boss is also its resident track rat, the chance of Toyota ditching combustion in its halo cars drops to near zero—at least until lawmakers physically lock the fuel pumps.
Interesting Stats & Nuggets
- Nürburgring’s 24-hour race covers ~3,000 km; Toyoda has clocked it three times—that’s seat-of-the-pants R&D.
- GR models have pushed Toyota’s average buyer age down by 10 years in Japan since 2019.
- Synthetic e-fuels could slash lifecycle CO₂ by up to 85 % compared with pump gas—one path to keep Toyoda’s beloved noise legal.
- Rumor mill: the next GR 86 may borrow a turbo 1.6-liter three-cylinder from the GR Corolla—because why not crank the volume knob to 11?
