Toyota is joining forces with Texas’ largest regulated utility to research a new technology that allows energy to flow from an electric car’s battery back to the electric grid.
Plano-based Toyota North America and Dallas-based Oncor, which operates the largest electricity distribution and transmission business in the state, think the project – dubbed vehicle-to-grid, or V2G – will hasten the adoption of electric vehicles, according to the companies.
The Japanese automaker wants its electric vehicle customers to be able to use their cars to power their homes and their communities or to send power back to the electric grid when it’s overwhelmed, said Christopher Yang, group vice president of Toyota Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions team.
“Our collaboration with Oncor is an important step for us to understand the needs of utilities, as we plan to work closely with them to ensure every community can embrace Toyota’s shift to electrified vehicles,” Yang said.
Research on the relationship between electric vehicles and utilities will start at Oncor’s System Operating Services Facility in southern Dallas County. In Texas, Oncor delivers power to more than 3.8 million homes and businesses and operates more than 140,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines.
The research collaboration comes after Toyota released its first mass-market electric vehicle, the bZ4X, this year. Its first Lexus battery electric vehicle, the RZ 450e, will go to market early next year.
Also this week, Siemens eMobility announced an 80,000-square-foot electric vehicle charger manufacturing plant in Carrollton as the company works to build more than one million chargers in the U.S. over the next three years. The chargers built in Carrollton will be targeted for workspaces, hospitals, airports, campuses, parking garages and parking lots. It’s expected to create 100 jobs at the facility and across the regional supply chain.
In November, South Korean company SK Signet announced plans to redevelop a Plano building into an EV charger manufacturing facility to create up to 183 jobs by 2026. Like Siemens, SK Signet plans for its plant to be fully operational by mid-2023. It plans to invest $24.2 million in the facility.
Texas, which has about 157,000 electric vehicles, including more than 7,000 in Dallas, is getting $408 million over the next five years from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which allocated $7.5 billion to build a nationwide network of 500,000 EV chargers. That’s the most of any state. Texas plans to use $147 million through 2023 to build 55 charging stations on Texas highways.
©2022 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Ever since the tragic death of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, the Subaru WRX has carried the once-burning-hot street-legal rally car torch alone. Having gone years without its original rival—or, essentially, any direct rival—has the Subie grown complacent? Time to find out, because the iconic World Rally Challenge (WRC) constructor's turbocharged, all-wheel-drive WRX finally has a rally-bred, turbocharged, all-wheel-drive challenger: the 2023 Toyota GR Corolla.
The Newcomer
The latest protégé of a nearly forgotten rival, the GR Corolla is the American flank in Toyota's long-awaited return to the rally stage. Preceded by the two-door, foreign-market-only GR Yaris, the GR Corolla upsizes the formula slightly for practicality and market appeal. Critically, it retains the key elements Subaru and Mitsubishi employed so successfully in the past: a central coupling (clutch pack) that offers adjustable front-to-rear torque splits, and an available mechanical limited-slip rear differential. To this, Toyota piles on with a mechanical limited-slip front differential, too (it comes with the rear diff as part of a performance package on entry-level Core models and is standard on all others). This is to say nothing of its radical, race-bred, turbocharged three-cylinder engine.
The Old Master
The product of years of continual refinement, the WRX is the latest iteration of a car Subaru's been faithfully building for decades. What once was radical now is commonplace, and even the WRX is beginning to feel a bit common. Right up front we asked if Subaru had continued to hone the WRX in the absence of competition, and the answer was a resounding no. The latest model is an iterative improvement on the last car. All the best elements remain, but there's little new and improved to talk about. Even its motor is a derivative of the same unit that powers the company's more profitable SUVs, not the racing-derived unit it once was.
Making life even harder for the defending champion is its lack of an ace in the hole. Subaru has made it clear there will be no WRX STI for this generation of car. No torque-vectoring center differential or highly boosted engine here. The standard WRX is as good as it gets, and that's worrisome given how, like several of the most recent WRXs, it's slower than the car it replaces.
The Matchup
The GR Corolla weighs less and makes more horsepower and torque. Its brakes are bigger, its tires are more aggressive, and its steering is quicker. About the only thing holding the Toyota back is its steeper price tag, but we'll get to that later. That's all bench racing, though. How the cars drive could still make a big difference, and here Subaru has the advantage of having refined an already good car rather than turning basic transportation into a race car as Toyota had to.
It's said experience and cunning can outfox youth and exuberance, but not in this case. The gulf between these cars is evident from the first turn of the wheel. There's a confidence in the way the GR Corolla moves that the WRX just can't match. Whereas the Subaru feels as though it's charging into the fight standing straight up, the Toyota feels crouched and ready to change direction on a moment's notice.
Curiously, although the GR Corolla's steering ratio is quicker, it's the WRX that feels darty and nervous on the road. It requires slow hands and a cool demeanor to tame. An agitated or nervous driver will get the same back from this car. The Toyota, meanwhile, makes clear it's ready for anything and everything you can throw at it. By the time you've entered the second corner, the GR Corolla has already convinced you of its composure and capability. You know intrinsically this car will respond positively and predictably to every input.
It takes longer to get comfortable with the WRX. In addition to feeling hyperactive the first time you drive it, the old rally car exhibits more body roll, pitch, and dive than the tightly controlled Toyota. This is not to say the WRX is sloppy, it just isn't as slick as the GR Corolla, and it feels much larger. It takes longer to settle on its suspension in a corner and requires constant attention. The Toyota is set-it-and-forget-it by comparison. That car digs in immediately, leans into its springs and dampers, and is ready to pounce out of the corner as soon as possible.
Despite their differences in roll and roll rate, both cars deliver impeccable damping. Although their overall personalities are different, each keeps its tires firmly in contact with the pavement at all times and isn't upset by bumps in braking zones or the middle of a corner. The GR Corolla tells you it's more confident in these situations, but the WRX does the job just as well.
It's around the edges that the WRX shows its weaknesses. Before you even get to a corner, the softer brake pedal and weaker bite from the pads—to the tune of a 4-foot-longer 60-0-mph braking result of 112 feet versus 108—force you to back up your braking points. Once you've arrived, it doesn't feel as composed entering a corner, what with the twitchy steering. It doesn't feel as composed midcorner with all the roll, and it doesn't feel as composed leaving a corner as it rears back on its tailpipe, the front end light and feeling as though it's hanging on by the very edges of its tread blocks.
The Track Day
Things get even more lopsided when you hit the racetrack. Per our test equipment, the WRX is a teensy bit quicker around the figure-eight course and pulls slightly higher average g, 24.8 seconds at 0.75 g average to the GR Corolla's 24.9-second lap at 0.74 g. It's cold comfort, though, as the Toyota leaves it in the dust on a proper track. The Subie's inferior brakes quickly become a minor liability, as do the inferior tires that fall off quicker as they attempt to corral an extra 139 pounds of car with more front weight bias (60 percent on the nose versus 58). The long shifter is better than before, but its commensurately long throws do the WRX little favor, and the second- and third-gear spacing will slow your most hurried efforts.
Surprisingly permissive stability control allows WRX drivers a good degree of freedom to exploit the struggling tires on the track. Once the rubber goes a little greasy, you can really start tossing the car around. It's not fast, but it's fun. In fact, you don't have to push any buttons to have a good time in the WRX. There's no sport mode to engage or vectoring of the torque, just a car set up to make you feel like you're going a lot faster than the speedometer says.
The Toyota, though, is an absolute riot. Drivers of any skill level can immediately feel as though they can absolutely hammer on this car on track and get everything out of it. The grip is unshakable, the balance allowing for a bit of entry rotation if you trail-brake it. It's the exact right amount to point you at the apex if you get it right and nothing more. Of course, to do it you need to set the stability control to Expert and nudge the rocker switch into Sport.
From there, the driver has the choice of front-to-rear torque bias. If you prefer the way a front-drive car handles, leave it in 60 percent front/40 percent rear. Like a rear-driver better? Go all the way 30/70, and it'll feel just a bit rear-biased (less so than the numbers suggest). A 50/50 option is identified as the Track setting rather than by its numerical values and offers a more WRX-like neutral split. Various editors found different ratios better fit their driving style, and you'll figure out which you like quickly enough.
If you just want to win a drag race, though, we recommend Track. It'll get you to 60 mph a full half-second quicker than the WRX (5.4 seconds to 5.9). Part of that is the better weight-to-power ratio, and part of it is the fact Toyota encourages you to dump the clutch at nearly redline for maximum effect. Subaru used to let you do that—and older WRXs got much better results, but that ability has been programmed out of the car for years now in a bid to lend the driveline some mechanical sympathy.
You'll also figure out your shift strategy in short order. That hand grenade of a turbo three-cylinder under the hood makes all its power in the top of the rev range, so you'll have to decide real quick whether you prefer to drop a gear for just a few seconds to keep it on the boil before shifting back up or just leave it in the high gear, get on the throttle super early, and let the turbo catch up right about the time you're straightening the wheel and ready for a surge of power.
However much you shift it, you'll appreciate the stubby shifter and its short, precise throws. Drivers of various shoe sizes disagreed on the efficacy of the pedal spacing for heel-toe operations, but the car responds well to it if you can pull it off. (For everyone else, there's the iMT automated rev-matching function that works quite well.) The horizontal bar graph of a tachometer blinks a big, bright rectangle of light at you when you're nearing redline that's easy to catch in your peripheral vision, the exact opposite of the Subaru that gives zero visual or audio warning you're about to slam into the rev limiter.
Although the Toyota provides better initial brake bite, greater stopping power, and stronger resistance to fade, we do think it could do with a bit more brake cooling, as we did detect signs of minor warpage after three straight days of intense driving on the street and track, same as the Subaru.
In the end, the rally-bred WRX comes off more as seriously playful, the GR Corolla as playfully serious. The Subaru moves around more underneath you, leans more in turns, and feels as though you're really driving it at its limit. The Toyota makes setting hot laps fun, not work, always making you feel like you can push it even harder and that it could easily handle an extra 50 horsepower.
Getting Dirty
The GR Corolla can have the street and the track, you might say. The WRX is at home in the dirt, its chassis set up to initiate and hold a drift on low-grip surfaces—and the stability control's even more permissive Sport mode stays out of the way. If you just want to have fun off-pavement, this car is it.
That's what the WRX was bred for, and surely the low-riding Toyota couldn't hold a candle to it on its home turf. You could say all that, sure, but you'd be wrong. The GR Corolla's an even more willing partner. The Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires have far fewer tread blocks with which to grip the dirt than the Subaru's Dunlop SP Sport Maxx 600As, but you wouldn't know it behind the wheel. Here again the Toyota is less outright playful and more serious about going fast. We preferred the 50/50 Track torque split here as it damped the effects of the somewhat jumpy throttle, which in 30/70 mode would kick the rear end loose a little too eagerly for our taste.
The Question of Cost
At $39,240 as-tested, the nicely equipped WRX Limited you see here is an excellent performance bargain. Better yet, since it isn't the hot new thing, it isn't subject to insane dealer markups the way the gotta-have-it GR Corolla is liable to be.
It's also $4,755 cheaper than the GR Corolla Circuit Edition in this test. That's a healthy chunk of change, and as impressive as the Toyota is, such a premium (before "market adjustments") gives reason for pause. Except… this Circuit Edition's only upgrade over an otherwise mechanically identical, similarly equipped Core model is a carbon-fiber roof and vented hood that, according to Toyota engineers, saves "ounces" of weight, a big rear wing of dubious performance value, and a special shift knob. You can get the same speed parts and in-car features for $39,445 if you properly option the Core, which is basically the same price you'd pay for the WRX. For significantly more car.
It's not just the performance, either. The GR Corolla feels significantly better-built than the WRX, tight as a drum and more solid-feeling. This particular Subaru already had some interior rattles and creaks, and the hood flutters constantly at speed.
The Usurper
It should be clear by now where we came down on this one. The GR Corolla is a triumph for Toyota, a long-awaited and often-teased return to form for a company with a proud but inconsistent performance heritage. Toyota didn't need to build this car, and it likely won't make much money on the whole endeavor. But the company—namely its president and CEO Akio Toyoda—wanted to, and the passion that led to this car is palpable when you drive it. Subaru made a pair of fatal tactical errors in not more significantly updating the WRX and choosing not to build an STI version that could give this Toyota a run for its money. It's easy to understand when you compare Subaru's business plan and budget to Toyota's, but it's no less disappointing for the WRX faithful. Hopefully, fresh competition will spur Subaru to reconsider its position, but until then, the GR Corolla has ascended the gravel throne.
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