While the world rushes headlong into an electric future like lemmings off a cliff, one man stands defiant against the tide. And he's not just any man – he's the chairman of the world's largest car company. Akio Toyoda, Toyota's chairman and former president, has made his position crystal clear with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face: "For me as the master driver, my definition of a sports car is something with the smell of gasoline and a noisy engine." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, while other automotive executives are busy telling us how wonderful their latest silent, soulless electric boxes are, the head of Toyota is fighting the good fight for those of us who still believe cars should make noise and smell of something other than oat milk lattes and smugness. The master driver who races under a secret identity What makes Toyoda's opinion carry more weight than your average suit in a boardroom is that he's not just some corporate drone who wouldn't know a limited-slip differential from a hole in the ground. The man is Toyota's official "master driver" with his own racing alter ego: Morizo. Since 2007, he's been strapping himself into racing cars under this pseudonym, hammering around circuits like the punishing Nürburgring in 24-hour endurance races. This isn't a man who talks about driving fast; this is a man who actually does it. When he's not running one of the largest companies on planet Earth, he's getting his race suit sweaty and his helmet dirty.It's rather like discovering that the CEO of Coca-Cola moonlights as a professional taste tester or learning that the head of IKEA spends his weekends building furniture for fun. There's something wonderfully authentic about it. Toyoda didn't stop at just giving himself a cool racing name. He's stamped it on special editions of cars he personally helped develop – like the absolutely brilliant GR Corolla Morizo Edition and the less-known but equally bonkers Lexus LBX Morizo RR crossover. When was the last time you saw the CEO of General Motors with a hot hatch named after them? Why electrification isn't the answer... yet Toyoda isn't completely against electric sports cars. He acknowledges that people within Toyota are pursuing the idea. But as someone who actually races cars rather than just talks about them in shareholder meetings, he's acutely aware of their current limitations. "It's not exciting to race EVs," he explains, pointing out that their batteries don't last on a circuit for more than an hour. For a man who prefers endurance racing, this is like trying to run a marathon with asthma and one leg. "It would be a race of charging time or battery exchange," he adds, which sounds about as thrilling as watching paint dry while someone reads the phone book. This isn't just the ramblings of an old-school petrolhead clinging to the past. The man who has guided Toyota to become the world's number one carmaker for five consecutive years has already predicted that electric cars will never represent more than 30 percent of global sales. That's a bold prediction from someone who could easily have jumped on the EV bandwagon to please investors. Meanwhile, Toyota hasn't completely abandoned the idea of electric sports cars. The FT-Se concept that they showed nearly two years ago is reportedly slated for production after 2026. According to its chief engineer, Fumihiko Hazama, this low-slung electric coupe will feature all-wheel drive with an electric motor at each axle and a next-gen battery pack. It should hit 62 mph in three seconds and max out at 155 mph – which sounds impressive until you realize you'll need to plug it in after an hour of hard driving. But before Toyota ventures into electron-powered fun, they're doubling down on what they do best – making sports cars that run on dinosaur juice. The Supra will live on beyond its current generation, and there are whispers about the return of the Celica and possibly even the MR2. Toyota has also hinted that their new GT3-spec race car might spawn a road-going Lexus version. And a next-generation 86 is apparently already in development. Toyota Australia's Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Sean Hanley, recently promised that "combustion engines and manual transmissions will be around for a long, long time," because they know car enthusiasts crave the "snap, crackle, and pop" of an internal combustion engine. Which is music to the ears of anyone who thinks a car should make more noise than a refrigerator. Who would have thought that Toyota – once known for making appliances on wheels – would become the guardian angel of the internal combustion engine? It's like discovering that your librarian is secretly a heavy metal drummer on weekends. So while the rest of the automotive industry races toward an electric future that nobody asked for, Toyota is proving that there's still room for cars that make noise, smell of petrol, and put a smile on your face. And for that, Mr. Toyoda, we salute you.
