Toyota GR 86 now slated for late-2022 arrival

Toyota has confirmed the hotly-anticipated second-generation Toyota GR 86 will touch down in Australia from the fourth quarter of this year – roughly nine months later than originally planned.

Citing dynamic development and deliberate strategy around product planning, Toyota Australia’s chief marketing officer Vin Naidoo played down the late arrival of the 2022 Toyota GR 86 and is adamant it will give no tangible advantage to the related Subaru BRZ, which has been on sale since March.

Speaking at a pre-production drive of the 86 in Sydney today, which coincided with the announcement that the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series would be extended, Naidoo said the 86 delay stemmed from additional development work.

“Through the development phase, it was about focusing on the track dynamics of the car – that was one reason for the delay,” he told carsales.

“The other reason is that we looked at the right timing for our market, and it’s that fourth quarter.”

Toyota remains tight-lipped about the specification and price of the new 86.

When Subaru launched the second-generation BRZ in March, it excluded manual variants from its all-encompassing EyeSight safety suite, which includes autonomous emergency braking (AEB).

Naidoo wouldn’t be drawn on whether all GR 86 variants would receive similar safety technology as standard.

“That played no bearing, we haven’t gone through any of those details yet. We have been focusing on the track qualities of the car and the handling and the right timing to launch the car,” he said.

“The combination of final spec, final price and the way we come to market in an ordering point of view will be detailed in the coming months.”

Australia will launch the new GR 86 months after the US, Japan and the UK, which are believed to offer identical specifications but were also delayed in their respective launches relative to the BRZ.

Naidoo noted the loyal following for the first-generation 86, and said he expected many of those will be return customers for the second instalment.

“The good news is we’ve got plenty of demand. How we mange that, we’ll continue to work with our parent company in Japan,” he said.

“We’re working through the ordering process now and how customers can get that car. When that’s finalised we’ll announce it.”

Toyota announced a four-year extension of its GR Australia 86 racing series this week, pushing the relationship to the end of 2026.

However, in a direct flow-on from the production car, the second-generation race car will not surface on circuits until 2024 – leaving a one-year buffer of the old shape circulating while the new model is on offer.

“The new 86 arrives late in 2022 as we’ve said, so we need time to prepare that car for racing,” said Naidoo.

“We don’t want to put into the series midway through, we just want to give it clear air. If the car arrived earlier, we would have done it earlier.”

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