September 20th Throttle 🏎️💨

What’s up Throttle Heads 😎. Welcome back to another edition.

Toyota Will Place A V8 In A Supra To Go Racing in Australia

The Toyota Supra is a legendary sportscar that has found a place in the hearts of many enthusiets and takes to the 2JZ inline-six engine of the A80-generation in the 1990s. After having taken the Supra to the chopping block, the car returned in 2020 in the form of a rebadged BMW with BMWs amazing B58 3.0-liter inline-six. Now, Toyota is aiming to shove a bigger engine in the form of a V-8 to compete in the Supercars Championship in 2026.

The GR Supra racecar is being kept under tight wraps but Toyota has shown off a clay model of the car (shown above) as well as a rendering. Toyota has said the GR Supra will use the 2UR-GSE all-aluminum quad-cam V-8. Toyota has used this engine extensively before in the likes of the Lexus LC500 and the IS500 F-Sport Performance. The car will feature a giant rear wing hanging off the rear decklike and chrome exhaust pipes poking out from under the side doors which is so dope. It also features a more extreme front splitter and a cutout in the hood which is probably where the engine cover for the V-8 lies.

Ford Calls Chinese Car Companies An “Existential Threat”

For years Chinese Car companies were the laughingstocks of the car industry with almost all of their designs being ripped off from mainstream brands. But then, they largely stopped this practice and heavily stepped up their game. Thanks to their abundant supply of cheap materials and labor, they are becoming a force to be reckoned with as they slowly claw more and more market share away from other automakers.

A report from the Wall Street Journal details a recent trip by Ford Excutives to China where they tested cars from local manufacturers. Jim Farley, Ford’s CEO, reportedly claimed Chinese EV manufacturers are “an existential threat” and CFO John Lawler admitted, “these guys are ahead of us”. The rise of Chinese car manufacturers is similar to that of Honda and Toyota who have been winning over American and European buyers since the 1980s. Ford is fighting back with the creation of a “shunkworks” division to design a new platform for affordable EVs to battle China and Tesla. Ford is about to launch the fully electric Puma crossover in Europe to compete with Chinese companies like BYD as soon as possible. Given concerns over how much data Chinese companies share with the government, it remains to be seen if consumers will be wary of these cars. Regardless, Chinese car companies are a mainstay and it is only a matter of time before they break into the US market.

For $225, Your GM EV Will Be Able To Plug Into Teslas Supercharger Network

A boatload of car companies are preparing to sell cars with Tesla’s NACS charging port to enable their EVs to plug into the Tesla supercharging network. Currently, most non-Tesla EVs use the CCS charging port which prevents them from accessing the Tesla Supercharger network, the biggest and most advanced charging network in the country. Tesla recently opened up the supercharger network to other car companies with the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 being the first non-Tesla car sold in the US to have NCAS from the factory. While the transition is ongoing, GM has released a CCS to NACS adaptor which will allow existing EVs such as the Chevy Blazer EV and the Hummer EV to plug into the network.

The adaptor, which is sold for $225, allows GM EVs to plug into 18,000 Tesla superchargers which will give GM EV owners access to 231,000 public chargers across the United States. This includes DC fast chargers and Level 2 chargers. Ford has released a similar adaptor for its vehicles which also includes a similar price of $230. GM owners can purchase the adaptor through the app for their respective brand. The adaptors will be available in Canada next year. Overall, this is a huge win for compatibility and it will speed up EV adoption across the country.

Logisitcs Companies Want An EV Truck Corridor Between LA and El Paso

A group of companies with major logistics operations including Maersk, Microsoft, AIT Worldwide Logistics, and PepsiCo have all formed a collaboration to test an EV truck charging corridor between Los Angeles and El Paso. We have known for a long time an EV charging corridor between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Now, these companies are teaming up to create another EV-sharing network along the I-10 to connect two of the biggest transportation hubs in the American Southwest.

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the biggest in the United States making them a good branching out point for EV truck corridors. While the infrastructure already exists at the starting point, more development is needed towards the end in Texas and New Mexico while EV adoption is progressing slower than in California. Led by Terawatt Infastructure Comanpy, a provider of EV charging infrastructure, a major goal of this project is to reduce the cost associated with electric trucks and improve factors such as range. With a federal mandate unlikely to materialize for electric trucks, it is likely industry will pave the way for the adoption of electric trucks in the United States.