The car world is going electric, but not all at once; some categories of vehicle are proving easier to electrify than others. Sports cars present a particular challenge. Current battery tech makes cars big, heavy and bulky — all of which are characteristics that are generally anathema to sports cars — and while early efforts like the Kia EV6 GT are quick off the line, electric vehicles as a whole just aren't that sporty yet.
But that could be about to change.
The Japan Mobility Show 2023 is happening in Tokyo during the week of October 23. And nearly every major Japanese automaker — Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru and Mazda — showed off a new electrified concept that brings its iconic sports car into the electric future. The concepts are very much in the conceptual stage, but we would not be surprised to see one or two of them pop up as production cars before the end of the 2020s.
Here's what you need to know about the electrified Japanese sports cars of the future.
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Toyota FT-Se Concept
Toyota
New MR2? Electric Supra? It could look something like Toyota's FT-Se concept. Toyota says it's a high-performance BEV model. It has a yoke-style steering apparatus suggesting it may be using the Lexus drive-by-wire technology. It also has knee pads to help reduce the impact of G-forces on the driver.
Japanese reports had Honda working on a Prelude successor. And it appears the brand was doing just that. Honda unveiled a Prelude concept. We don't have a lot of details — beyond it being hybrid and incorporating "the joy of driving." But it looks close to production-ready. And Honda encouraged enthusiasts to "keep your expectations high."
Nissan isn't just dabbling in vans that monitor your biometrics. The brand unveiled the Hyper Force concept for "racing enthusiasts and eco-conscious gamers." It packs 1,341 horsepower and Nissan's e-Force AWD system. The driver can also race it with a VR helmet when the vehicle is stopped.
Nissan does not explicitly confirm this is where the GT-R is heading. But the Hyper Force has two drive modes: "GT" and "R."
Subaru provided its vision of an electric sports car with the Sport Mobility concept. We didn't get many firm details about it. But it has all-wheel-drive, a low driving position and excellent visibility, purportedly.
A major challenge to converting the MX-5 Miata to electric power will be weight. And Mazda may be working on a very Mazda-like solution to that: a rotary engine range extender for an EV.
The Iconic SP concept packs a two-rotor rotary EV system that pumps out about 365 horsepower and keeps the weight down to just 3,197 pounds with a 50/50 distribution. That's still about 800 pounds heavier than a Miata. But it's also lighter than many combustion sports cars.
