It’s been a while since Toyota built a hot hatch, hasn’t it? Well, according to reports out of the United Kingdom, the Japanese automaker is considering building a high-performance Yaris to mirror its return to the World Rally Championship.
Toyota will compete in the 2017 season of the rally championship with the Yaris WRC, some 17 years after it left the sport. And South African Johan van Zyl, chairman of Toyota SA Motors and CEO of the Europe Region, says this return to WRC is set to be reflected in the brand’s product range.
“It’s no use doing motorsport if you can’t reflect it in your product. What you’ll see is that we want to totally integrate it into our offering. From the European side, we would like to do something, to bring something to market that will reflect our participation in WRC,” Van Zyl told Auto Express.
“I am also being a car person so I like to see that the people can really experience the joy of that – especially those who are real enthusiasts. Lots of people like to wear the same Nikes as the athletes, even though they can’t run as fast,” he quipped.
The British publication suggests that a Yaris hot hatch would likely have to wait until the next generation of the vehicle is launched, which is expected to happen in 2018.
Van Zyl went on to tell Auto Express that Toyota was keen to develop “excitement” around its products.
“We want to create a global feel for motorsport and [Toyota] Gazoo [Racing] stands for us wanting to learn from motorsport, and for developing excitement around cars. If you love cars, they shouldn’t just be for getting from A to B,” he said.
