Toyota GR is on track to offer one of the most exciting sports car lineups among mainstream automakers, but it looks like none of them will be fully electric. Chairman Akio Toyoda made it clear that his definition of a sports car is “something with the smell of gasoline and a noisy engine,” which means electric powertrains are off the table for Gazoo Racing, at least for the near future.

Toyoda,  grandson of Toyota Motor Corp. founder Kiichiro Toyoda, who has earned the unofficial title of “master driver”, holds the final say on what makes a Lexus a Lexus and a Toyota a Toyota. Under his leadership, the Japanese automaker has undergone a transformation, becoming a brand that genuinely cares about driving enthusiasts.

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He’s brought Toyota back to the top of motorsports while sprinkling some rally-car magic into production models like the GR Yaris and GR Corolla. With the upcoming debuts of an MR2 successor, a revived Celica, and a GR-branded supercar, Toyoda recently shared his thoughts on the future of performance EVs.

No Electric Dreams, For Now

In an interview with Auto News, Toyoda was asked whether he could imagine a future where Toyota builds an electric sports car or race car. His response was as classic as you’d expect: “There will always be people inside Toyota passionate about developing electric sports cars. But for me as the master driver, my definition of a sports car is something with the smell of gasoline and a noisy engine.”

These comments pretty much crush any hopes of seeing a production version of the electricToyota FT-Se concept from 2023, which many thought might preview a new generation of the discontinued MR2. Toyota has been keeping the MR2 revival rumors alive with a mid-engined GR Yaris prototype, but instead of an electric powertrain, it’s packing the upcoming turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine.

An Electric Sports Car Needs to Be Affordable

Despite his preference for gas-engines, Toyoda hasn’t completely closed the door on EVs. He conceded that if the right conditions come together, an electric sports car could eventually make sense. But there’s a catch: it has to be affordable. “Toyota is a mass-production brand, so we also need to think about affordability, even with BEVs,” he explained. “Once Toyota has the capacity to offer affordable BEVs, then maybe that’s a moment when I, as a master driver, will be introducing a BEV sports car.”

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The master driver isn’t exactly sold on electric race cars, at least not yet. He pointed out that racing EVs are “not exciting,” mainly because they can’t even make it around the circuit for more than an hour. “The kind of races I enter are mostly endurance races, so with current BEVs, it’s not going to be a race of the cars. It’s a race of charging time or battery exchanges or something,” he told Auto News.

For these reasons, he’s handed off the task of developing EV race cars to the next master driver, saying it will be “their job” to tackle.

Speaking of a potential successor, Toyoda did admit that his son, Daisuke, is the better driver. Still, Akio believes he has the upper hand when it comes to the “seasoning” of production models. After honing his driving skills under chief test driver Naruse at the ripe age of 40, Toyoda says he’s eager to see what his son, who started much younger, will bring to the table. “I look forward to seeing what will happen with someone who started young like Daisuke,” he said.