While the FT-Se concept won’t be fully revealed for another week or two, it’s hard not to be excited about what’s coming. The Gazoo Racing (GR)-badged concept car seems to have some serious Supra design DNA based on two early shots Toyota has shared. Spoilers (well, spoiler) ahead.
The current-gen ICE Supra has a rather unmistakable rear end thanks to its integrated rear “ducktail” wing design, and the FT-Se is similarly distinct. It also shares the Supra’s liftback-style rear windshield, though it’s not clear if the FT-Se is actually a hatchback.
A positively massive rear diffuser would seem to indicate Toyota wants you to know this car will be Very Fast, as does the highly prominent “GR” badging on the decklid. This two-door sports car screams “track weapon,” and we can only hope Toyota has serious plans to bring something like it to production.
The other element of the FT-Se that Toyota is keen to tease is the cockpit layout, which very much does continue the race car vibes. Perhaps most curious to me of the three prominent displays surrounding the driver’s seat is the one left of the steering wheel.
It looks to be about the size of a large smartphone and appears to display the car’s current drive mode and perhaps some vehicle settings — it’s all rather intentionally vague. The area left of the steering wheel is typically a “dead zone” ergonomically, with controls for things like lane keep assist, traction control systems, and headlights often going here. Basically, the kind of things you don’t frequently touch in the first place (given automatic headlights and high beams are now near-universal). It’s an interesting use of a rarely interesting spot in the car.
The steering wheel, lamentably, is an extra-wide F1-style yoke. Let’s hope that never sees the light of day in production (and concept car steering wheels almost never do). The other two displays look pretty standard, though the center console screen seems tilted toward the driver — a Supra hallmark in the Mk III and Mk IV generations that actually wasn’t kept in the current car.
Finally, Toyota says the fast-and-low FT-Se is built on the same platform as its FT-3e crossover concept, suggesting that the company plans to pursue the same kind of universal “sled” layout that most EV manufacturers have used to build their families of vehicles. That probably means a whole slew of Toyota EV concepts in the next year or two. You can find Toyota’s official press release here.
Electrek’s Take
An electric Supra? Sign us up. As someone who’s driven the ICE version of the car, while it’s great, there’s nothing about that engine that’s special. The Supra has always been about looking cool as much as it has going fast, and it’s hard for me to think of many sports car badges more aligned with an aspirational future than Supra.
That said, Toyota hasn’t called the FT-Se a Supra concept, so it’s entirely possible it will be badged under a different nameplate when and if it comes to market. But looking at that ducktail wing and driver-tilted center console, come on, this is a very Supra-y vehicle.