Toyota Europe's hot hatch Yaris sketch.
For those who think of the Toyota Yaris as just another boring econobox, the Japanese maker may have a surprise in store.
With an assortment of new models – including the next-generation Camry – set to pump up the passion quota, Toyota’s European subsidiary has revealed plans to “return to the hot hatch market” with a rally-inspired makeover of the Yaris.
“The #YarisWRC will have a direct impact on expanding the Yaris line-up with a performance oriented version,” Toyota Europe revealed in a tweet accompanying the release of this sketch.
There’s not much else in the way of hard details, but the performance model will be based on Toyota’s latest entry into the World Rally Championship. That reflects the Japanese maker’s increasing focus on motor sports – it just last month clinched its first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Manufacturers’ Championship – and the mantra laid down by Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda calling for more “passion” in the company’s products.
The current Toyota Yaris doesn't exactly get the passion needle pegging.
There are likely to be skeptics, considering Toyota’s long focus on what U.S. automotive chief Bob Carter admitted are “boring appliances,” but Toyota is clearly trying to shift direction. The carmaker has a “dramatic,” all-new version of the Camry set to debut at the North American International Auto Show next month, along with a complete makeover of the Lexus LS flagship sedan.
(For a closer look at the new, 2018 Camry, Click Here.)
It’s also getting ready to launch production of the aggressive Lexus LC sports coupe, and the once-formidable Toyota Supra now seems, after years of fruitless speculation, ready to rejoin the line-up.
The Yaris WRC would serve as an entry-level anchor and a particularly important entry into the European market where hatchbacks remain an important body style. The current Yaris has been little more than an also-ran compared to domestic European and American alternatives – as well as some Japanese competitors like the Subaru WRX STI.
A Lexus LFA wearing the colors of the Toyota Gazoo Racing team,
(Lexus teases new LS sedan ahead of Detroit Auto Show debut. Click Here for more.)
Word from the Continent suggests the new model would be dubbed the Yaris Gazoo – and that’s got nothing to do with the little sprite, the Great Gazoo, that American fans of the old Flintstones series might recall. Toyota Gazoo Racing is the name of the motor sports group that handles a variety of different motor sports programs for Toyota, including its endurance models running on the Le Mans circuit.
The Great Gazoo.
Gazoo already has dabbled in tuning some Toyota models, but only for sale – at this point – in Japan. The Yaris sketch shows it wearing Gazoo colors, hinting Europe is the next stop.
As for the United States, Toyota has yet to answer our call on that, but considering the company’s clearly stated goal of upping the passion quotient, we would not bet against the possibility the Yaris hot hatch eventually makes it across the Atlantic, whether helped by the Great Gazoo or by some other means.
(Toyota reverses course, plans big push into electric vehicles. Click Here to plug in.)