Toyota electric sports car to be tested at the Nurburgring – executive

Japanese car giant Toyota will use the iconic Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany as a testbed for its new electric sports car, while setting its sights on the upcoming battery-powered Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman.

Revealed late last month at the Tokyo motor show, the Toyota FT-Se is expected to become the brand’s first battery-powered sports coupe, with a design akin to the mid-engined MR2 of the 1980s and 1990s.

Due as a production model in 2026, the FT-Se could be based on Toyota’s next-generation electric-car platform, allowing it to be lighter and more powerful than current models.

In an interview with British magazine Top Gear, Fumihiko Hazama – the FT-Se’s chief engineer – said the sports car will be 'shaken down' at the 20.8-kilometre circuit before it enters production.

“The Nordschleife is our target for this vehicle,” Mr Hazama told Top Gear editor Vijay Pattni. 

“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what our target lap time is, but we’ll be taking a prototype to the Nürburgring in the future.”

Despite claiming a 0-100km/h time of three seconds, Mr Hazama foresees challenges with the Toyota FT-Se – or any electric car – being driven around the Nürburgring, given the flat-out nature of the track causing battery temperatures to climb quickly.

“Cooling the battery around the Nürburgring will be very difficult,” Mr Hazama said. “It’s hard driving around a long course which makes the battery temperature higher. Cooling will be important for this car’s performance. For its speed.”

The Toyota executive also named the upcoming electric Porsche Cayman as a potential rival to the FT-Se, which overseas reports have suggested will launch in 2025 – about a year before the Japanese sports car goes into production.

“The next-generation Porsche Cayman will be an electric vehicle, so maybe that will be one of our targets,” Mr Hazama told Top Gear.

As reported earlier this week, the Toyota FT-Se is expected to be the car-maker’s first model to be fitted with its new simulated manual transmission for electric cars.

UK publication Autocar reports the road-going Toyota FT-Se would likely borrow its clutch pedal and gear shifter assembly from the GR86 sports car, though the operation of shifting – and changing between the car's virtual 'gears' – would be electronically controlled, using software to vary the speed of the electric motors to simulate a real transmission.