Toyota Sports EV Concept Previews An Electric MR2 Successor

Name: Toyota Sports EV Concept Previews An Electric MR2 Successor
Uploaded: 2021-12-14T14:03:20Z
Description: It looks like a design study for now, but Toyota says it will spawn an eventual production model down the line.

It looks like a design study for now, but Toyota says it will spawn an eventual production model down the line.

Toyota Sports EV

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Dec 14, 2021 at 9:03am ET

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Toyota has just revealed its plan to launch no fewer than 15 new electric vehicles (or 14, if you don’t count the bZ4X that has already been shown) but driving enthusiasts will surely have noticed that among them was a sports car. It appears to be a small car, with mid-engined vehicle proportions, so it could be seen as an electric successor to the iconic MR2.

The manufacturer simply calls this Sports EV, but it doesn’t go into detail regarding the production model, when it will be made, or any technical specs. We did spot the GR badge up front and its design suggests to us that this should be a rear-wheel drive vehicle, although being an EV, it could also be made all-wheel drive fairly easily.

What Toyota did confirm about this model is that it will be co-developed with Lotus and possibly even built by the famed British sports car maker. We also know that its production incarnation will debut before the end of the current decade, although we can estimate when that will be.

Gallery: Toyota Sports EV

Toyota Sports EV

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The Lotus connection hints at the fact that the Toyota sports car will most likely have a Lotus sister model too. It could be the Lotus Elise’s electric successor that is expected to debut in 2026, it will ride on a bespoke EV architecture called E-Sports, single- and dual-motor configurations will be available and it could have up to 470 horsepower.

If these so far unconfirmed numbers turn out to be accurate, you can expect the Toyota model to be similar. And if this is true, then Toyota would probably launch its model at about the same time, so sometime after the middle of the decade.