A new Toyota Celica is happening

Toyota’s vice president has confirmed work has begun on the long-awaited replacement for the Celica sports car that was killed off back in 2006 after 36 years of continuous sales.

Rumours have of a modern rebirth of both the Toyota Celica and the MR2 roadster have been circulating for more than a decade now, but only now has the Japanese car-maker confirmed its rally-bred coupe is returning.

Speaking at the Rally Japan WRC event at the weekend, Toyota vice president Yuki Nakajima told attendees and Best Car “We’re making the Celica”.

“To be honest, there’s is no sign of it right now, However, there are many people within the company who are eagerly awaiting the Celica,” he said.

“So, I wonder if it’s OK to say this in a public forum, but we’re doing the Celica.”

The official confirmation comes after Toyota posted a cartoon called The Grip that showed a list of new models that detailed the Supra Mk6, Celica Mk8, MR2 Mk4, GR 86 Mk3 and GR GT3.

The evidence suggests both the reborn Celica and next-generation GR 86 will be roughly the size of a Mk7 Celica and differentiated from one another through their respective employments of battery-electric and internal combustion power.

Developing the new line-up of performance cars is Toyota’s Gazoo Racing performance division.

While the GR 86 is tipped to continue to be powered by combustion power – based around an electrified version of the GR Corolla’s 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol – the all-new Celica could be the beneficiary of Toyota’s next-generation electric sports car architecture.

The new platform has already been teased under the 2023 Toyota FT-Se concept and is claimed to arrange the batteries in a stacked formation to allow the driver to sit 75mm lower than a current Porsche 718 Cayman for the full sportscar experience.

Sharing the high cost of the new platform, the unnamed architecture will also be used on the reborn MR2.

Sadly, Nakajima did not share any details on how Toyota plans to reinvent the Supra for the electric age, nor provide any updates on the GR GT3 supercar that has been seen testing on racetracks around the world.

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