The car world is going electric, but not all at once; some categories of vehicle are proving easier to electrify than others. Sports cars present a particular challenge. Current battery tech makes cars big, heavy and bulky — all of which are characteristics that are generally anathema to sports cars — and while early efforts like the Kia EV6 GT are quick off the line, electric vehicles as a whole just aren’t that sporty yet.
But that could be about to change.
The Japan Mobility Show 2023 is happening in Tokyo during the week of October 23. And nearly every major Japanese automaker — Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru and Mazda — showed off a new electrified concept that brings its iconic sports car into the electric future. The concepts are very much in the conceptual stage, but we would not be surprised to see one or two of them pop up as production cars before the end of the 2020s.
Here’s what you need to know about the electrified Japanese sports cars of the future.
Toyota FT-Se Concept
ToyotaNew MR2? Electric Supra? It could look something like Toyota’s FT-Se concept. Toyota says it’s a high-performance BEV model. It has a yoke-style steering apparatus suggesting it may be using the Lexus drive-by-wire technology. It also has knee pads to help reduce the impact of G-forces on the driver.
