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If Toyota made something clear among the myriad concepts it brought to this year’s Japan Mobility Show, it’s that the company wants to meet people where they are. Take the futuristic, new Corolla concept, for example. It might look like an electric vehicle, but Toyota is confident it can also achieve its silhouette and expansive interior volume by cramming a tiny gas engine in its short nose. And it better, because Toyota isn’t merely aspiring to keep churning out engines for a little while. When all’s said and done, it wants to be the last one standing.
“In my personal opinion, I think that Toyota Motor Corporation should be a company that will be making engines until the very end,” Hiroki Nakajima, Toyota’s chief technology officer, said through an interpreter during a technical Q&A session with media in Tokyo on Thursday, before adding that he wanted Toyota to be the “last company” in the practice.
Generally speaking, Toyota’s stance on this has been clear for a long time. Former CEO, now chairman Akio Toyoda said somewhat controversially years ago that while Toyota’s primary goal is reducing carbon emissions, it doesn’t consider battery electric vehicles the only means to achieve that end. Halfway through this decade, it seems other automakers have come around to agree that there’s still an important role for internal combustion to play.
Get a look at how short the Corolla Concept’s hood is, and how deep the footwells go. Yes, it’s a show car, but Toyota doesn’t believe this kind of packaging is only possible for EVs. Toyota (top left), Adam Ismail
Still, it’s one thing to say that we need gas engines right now; it’s another to aspire to keep them around for as long as possible. During this panel, Nakajima spoke about balancing the necessity to reduce CO2 emissions with consumer wants and needs, but he also spoke about his personal love of motorsports, and a belief that synthetic carbon-neutral fuels can allow gas engines to live on for enthusiast applications.
His colleague Takashi Uehara, who runs Toyota’s powertrains division, likened high-performance EVs to trying to enjoy fireworks on mute: just seen, not heard or felt. It’s obvious that the chairman’s passion for internal combustion isn’t an edict from the top—the sentiment is echoed down the chain of command.
But Uehara also extolled the practical benefits of gas engines, like the recyclability of their aluminum construction, and the power-dense fuels they harness. He shed some light on Toyota’s upcoming 1.5-liter, four-cylinder hybrid powertrain, which takes up a remarkably small amount of space, and targets 134 total horsepower with a 10-to-20% improvement in fuel economy over the firm’s existing inline-four of the same displacement.
A photo of Toyota’s in-development 1.5-liter, four-cylinder hybrid powertrain, from its unveiling in May 2024. This engine is 10% smaller in volume and 10% lower in height than the automaker’s current unit of the same size. Toyota
That’s the technology Toyota envisions for the Corolla on the show floor, and it’s enticing for those customers that just don’t see an EV fitting into their life yet. To Nakajima’s point, maybe it’s also a sign there’s plenty of life left in gas engines after all. As to whether Toyota will be the last to still make them, only time will tell.
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
