Toyota now makes fun cars like the Supra, 86, GR Corolla and more - but now it need to ramp up its electric car efforts | Opinion

Akio Toyoda made the Toyota Camry fun.

When Toyoda took control of his family’s company, Toyota Motor Corporation, in 2009 it was a very different company than what we know it today. Yes, it was still a popular brand, but Toyota of 2023 is a very different beast to Toyota of 2009, with a reputation for building ‘whitegoods on wheels’ - simple and affordable cars without any excitement or passion.

Toyoda changed that, implementing his ‘Toyota New Global Architecture’ plan, which combined cost-effective modular underpinnings with a focus on more dynamic driving ability. On top of that he used his passion for racing - and specifically his personal Gazoo Racing - to usher in a new era of performance cars for the brand, reviving the Supra and 86 badges and introducing the brand’s first true hot hatches.

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Under Toyoda’s stewardship Toyota has flourished and invested in a wide range of technologies too, including hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, as well as the Gazoo Racing products. Something which has inspired much respect across the company. 

Sean Hanley, Toyota Australia’s vice president and sales boss, is a long-term company man having worked across both Toyota and Lexus during his tenure with TMC. He has nothing but praise for Toyoda’s influence on the company.

“I think he’s brought wonderful products,” Hanley said. “He’s set a long-term strategic approach for the company that we’ll all benefit from. That does include BEVs and it does include fuel cells. And he’s very much entrenched, in the most positive way, the Toyota way.”

Without question, Akio Toyoda has made Toyota a better company than when he took over. But his decision to stand aside and allow Lexus and Gazoo Racing chief, Koji Sato, to take control of Toyota is the right move at the right time.

While Toyoda has focused on dynamics, performance and a broad range of alternative fuel technologies, Toyota has arguably fallen behind in the electric vehicle race. Sato has been chosen for his new role in large part because of his work accelerating Lexus’ electric transition and will be asked to do the same for the mainstream brand.

Toyota has been surprisingly late to the EV game.

Which is exactly what the company needs. Make no mistake, Toyota is still the world’s leading car maker, especially in Australia where it dominates the sales charts, selling more than double what second-placed Mazda sold last year. In 2022 it sold more than 72,000 hybrid vehicles, so it’s doing what it can to move towards a carbon neutral future; which is its stated goal.

However, as of this moment in time, Toyota Australia doesn’t offer an electric car. The bZ4X is coming but when you look at Toyota’s rivals such as Mazda, Kia, Hyundai and MG, they already have one (if not multiple) EVs available today.

Toyoda’s focus on overhauling Toyota’s image from dull to desirable has been a wild success, as witnessed by the overwhelming demand for the GR Yaris and incoming GR Corolla. But it has seemingly come at the expense of electrification, or at the very least slowed down the brand’s electric transition. 

The GR Corolla is Toyota's latest hot hatch.

Sure, Toyoda oversaw the unveiling of 30 electric concepts for Toyota and Lexus that could become future production models, but that came at the end of 2021 - a time when many brands were already launching production EVs to market.

And, yes, it’s great that Toyota sells so many hybrids, but the technology in the current RAV4, Corolla Cross, Camry, etc is fundamentally the same as what Toyota launched in the Prius 20 years ago. Toyota needs to speed up its battery-electric vehicles if it doesn’t want to leave itself exposed in a future where even hybrid engines will be banned in Europe (and likely other key markets) by the middle of next decade.

Sato inherits a bigger, better and arguably more successful company that Toyoda did in 2009, but he has the opportunity to put his mark on it. Leading Toyota into its next stage of electrification, whilst retaining the ‘fun to drive’ spirit that Toyoda has instilled across the entire range should be his priority.