Toyota says that the sudden success of the GR Yaris has led it to make the new hatchback a everlasting fixture in its line-up.

Speaking at an occasion the place we drove a prototype of the new facelifted GR Yaris, its chief engineer Naohiko Saito mentioned: “This is not the top of improvement.” 

The GR Yaris ‘Evo’ has gained upgrades to its high-performance sturdiness, extra energy, a stiffer physique, revised suspension and the choice of an eight-speed computerized gearbox alongside the six-speed handbook. 

Toyota has offered greater than 32,000 GR Yarises – way over it anticipated. It wanted to make 25,000 automobiles with the distinctive three-door bodyshell (the common Yaris is five-door solely) to homologate the form for its World Rally Championship competitor.

Toyota was so unsure that the GR Yaris would hit the goal that it additionally created a less expensive variant for Japan known as the RS, that includes the regular Yaris’s 1.5-litre hybrid powertrain and not one of the GR’s specialist {hardware}.

It has offered greater than 3000 however in the end hasn’t wanted the RS to make up the numbers.

Toyota has additionally been bowled over by the wealth of the consumers who’re shopping for GR Yarises. “This is something we’ve never seen before,” Saito mentioned. 

Some 48% of GR Yarises are purchased as ‘additional cars’ to a buyer’s storage, whereas the category common for hot hatches tends to be round 10%, with the overwhelming majority purchased because the proprietor’s solely automobile.

The GR Yaris is now monitoring “100% above plan”, in keeping with Saito, therefore the facelift could possibly be justified – though he stresses that neither the facelift nor the venture within the first place would have been attainable and not using a automotive fanatic like Akio Toyoda (who stepped down as president and CEO to become chairman last year) on the head of the corporate.