Toyota Corolla GR hot hatch wanted in Oz

Watch out Volkswagen Golf GTI, Hyundai i30 N, Ford Focus ST, Honda Civic Type R, Renault Megane RS, Subaru WRX and upcoming Mazda3 Turbo: there’s a muscled-up Toyota Corolla GR hot hatch on the way and it will be sold in Australia.

Indeed, the high-performance Toyota Corolla GR hot hatch inadvertently confirmed by the Japanese brand’s American arm is high on the agenda for Toyota Australia, and it looks set to out-power the new Mazda3 Turbo’s 170kW with ease by pumping out 192kW.

“While nothing has been officially confirmed on GR Corolla at this time, I can tell you quite categorically, if one were to become available from our global line-up in right-hand drive we’d be most definitely very keen to bring it here,” Toyota Australia’s sales and marketing boss, Sean Hanley, told carsales.

Senior Toyota execs have talked about a high-performance Corolla since the all-new small car’s global premiere in early 2018. Then in May 2020, Toyota USA confirmed the existence of the new Corolla GR by posting the following details on the official Toyota.com website:

“While GR Yaris isn’t coming to the U.S., perhaps it’s time the U.S. got a Toyota hot hatch to call its own. One that continues to push the boundaries of performance. And one that can only come from TOYOTA GAZOO Racing. Are you with us?”

Toyota USA only has two hatchbacks, the Yaris and Corolla.

Expected to be powered by the same 1.6-litre turbo-petrol three-cylinder engine (192kW/360Nm) as the Toyota Yaris GR, which will be on sale in Australia from around November, the Toyota Corolla GR won’t be a warmed-up version of the popular hatchback, as many have labelled the new Mazda3 Turbo.

Hanley wouldn’t be drawn on powertrain details or whether the Corolla will use the brand’s 192kW turbo-petrol engine in a front-drive layout (Yaris GR is AWD), but he did admit it would be a legitimate performance car.

“Anything that Toyota puts the GR brand on will be a genuine performance car. We’re very excited about what GR has in the market for this year in Australia and we’re even more excited about what GR will bring to our brand in Australia in the future,” said the Toyota executive.

The Toyota Supra GR is already on sale in Australia and will be followed up by the Toyota Yaris GR later in 2020. The Corolla GR is likely to become the third model from the Japanese brand’s high-performance brand in Australia.

Hanley side-stepped questions around the Corolla GR borrowing running gear from the Yaris GR, such as its six-speed manual transmission, big 356mm front and 297mm rear brake discs and wide body kit.

“What we do know is that Australia loves hot hatches and we’ve always shown an interest in offering a high-performance Corolla locally, I’ll tell you that up front,” stated Hanley.

The Toyota sales and marketing chief said “GR is a really important performance brand” and that the launch of the Supra GR and soon the Yaris GR are significant milestones for the Toyota sub-brand.

“So suddenly GR is getting a lot of momentum and we’re starting to talk more about it,” added Hanley.

The biggest challenge for Toyota Australia will be negotiating prices for its new GR hot hatches, especially when the likes the Hyundai i30 N ($41,400), Ford Focus ST ($44,690) and Volkswagen Golf GTI ($46,690) offer impressive bang for your bucks.