Toyota GR to Keep Using Internal Combustion Engines Despite Electrification Trend

TapTechNews May 29th news, although the automotive industry is moving towards full electrification, Toyota Gazoo Racing (GR) stated that its future GR brand models will still use internal combustion engines.

The GR Supra, GR Yaris and a series of high-performance models have allowed Toyota to return to the sports car field, and at the same time, the GR Corolla and GR86 have also injected fresh blood into the hot hot-hatch market. Recently, Tomoya Takahashi, the president of Toyota Gazoo Racing, clearly stated in an interview in Australia that GR brand models will continue to use internal combustion engines.

We want to use internal combustion engines as much as possible, Takahashi told CarExpert. There may be a situation in the future where internal combustion vehicles are completely banned for sale, but the internal combustion engine itself is not bad. The real enemy is carbon emissions. We are investing in researching and developing future engines.

TapTechNews noted that, unlike many automakers that have turned to pure electric vehicles, Toyota is taking a multi-path approach to reducing emissions. Takahashi pointed out that the GR department can use hybrid power systems to reduce emissions, and they are also open to the use of carbon-neutral fuels.

Through hybrid technology, we can reduce carbon emissions and can also use carbon-neutral fuels, he said. We are not sure at the moment when electrification will become widespread on a large scale. Globally, there are also discussions that not all cars will become electric vehicles. No one can accurately predict the future in ten years. Our direction is multi-path and not limited to pure electric vehicles.

Takahashi also mentioned in the interview that Gazoo Racing is not like some pure electric vehicles that pursue speed simply to build fast cars, but is committed to building fun cars. Speed and handling are different, he said. We want to build better cars.

Last week, the head of Gazoo Racing revealed that the company's next model may be a performance-oriented SUV. Possible models that may be included in the GR retrofit plan include the C-HR and Yaris Cross, but Toyota may also launch an enhanced version of the Corolla Cross or RAV4.