Toyota gutted the 1983 Corolla GTS, also AE86, and injected it with electric vim, but refused to abandon the part of its soul that loves a clutch pedal. Lexus engineers pulled out the classic 4A-GEC engine, ditched the rear seats, and tucked in an 18.1-kWh battery where the trunk and back seats used to live. Total weight climbs from 2,116 to 2,356 lbs, yet the power-to-weight feels eerily faithful to the original.
Toyota mated that battery to the six-speed manual from a modern Toyota GR86, and added a modified Tundra hybrid motor. The engineers imposed a ceiling at 6,000 rpm on the motor, to force you to shift. EVs don’t normally need gears, but this one does. And they even simulate an idle: when you put it in neutral, the motor spins up and down to fake engine breathing. A pair of speakers behind the seat belt inlets pipe in the recorded sound of the old 4A engine revving, not because it’s practical, but because it’s delightful in a cruel, nostalgic way.
On the drive, it shocks how responsive things feel. There’s no power steering, so every turn is intimate, you remember you’re tethered to pavement via mechanical contact. Kick out of the clutch, slam a gear, and the little EV bolts forward with torque that feels like it’s been given a shot of adrenaline.
Range is the Achilles’ heel: only about 60 miles under real conditions. That’s barely enough for a coffee run. Charging is mild, and the USA’s charger standard doesn’t even play nicely with this JDM battery, so they showed us battery swaps (about 40 minutes with hoist) for “range extension”. A bit clunky, but charming in its audacity.
The EV feels like it’s cracked open the soul of its predecessor and squeezed out every last grin. Lexus says it’s a “concept built to gauge interest”. It started life for the 40th anniversary of the Toyota AE86. Technically, they solved much of the puzzle: they kept the feel, added modernity, but also preserved the storytelling. Nobody expects this to go into mass production with those constraints. But as a wild thought experiment, it works.
