It's been a long-standing secret that Toyota is working on a new Celica. Now the Japanese have secured the name "GR Celica".
The Toyota Celica is making a comeback. And now the car is even closer than ever to being a reality. Toyota has trademarked the name GR Celica.
This suggests that the upcoming model will be part of Toyota's GR program of performance cars.
The trademark is registered by Toyota Motor Corporation in Brazil. The application is dated January 15th and was published by the authorities on February 4th of this year.
This is reported by the media outlet Drive .
The registration does not provide any further information about the upcoming, eighth generation of the sports car. Only the name is in place. At least officially.
Toyota's acquisition of the trademark in Brazil indicates that the GR Celica may be sold in South America, with other potential markets including Japan and Europe.
Availability depends on Toyota's overall strategy. It also depends on whether the car's powertrain complies with regional emissions regulations. And that's even harder than securing a name. Especially in Europe.
Rumors of a Celica comeback have been rife for years. The seventh generation was discontinued in 2006 without a direct successor.
Toyota confirmed in November 2024 that the Celica is on the way. This happened at a public event in Japan, where a senior employee spoke about the upcoming car.
A new turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine is under development at Toyota. That engine will most likely land in the upcoming Celica.
Several media outlets have already suggested that there will be multiple versions of this engine. One will be used by Toyota for racing, while another will be used in street cars. However, the latter will have to have at least 400 horsepower to do well.
If this is the case, the powertrain will likely be combined with all-wheel drive, just as we know the Celica model for.
It is possible that the system will be the same as the rally-inspired GR-Four system, a system already found in the GR Yaris and GR Corolla.
The Toyota Celica is expected to be sold alongside the next generation GR 86. However, it is still unknown when the new Toyota Celica will be officially presented.
There is also no information about the price of the upcoming Toyota Celica. It is also not known what the final design of the Toyota Celica will look like.
However, we can safely expect an expensive car in Denmark. If the car comes here. Due to emission-based tax rules, the small GR Yaris costs almost 800,000 kroner here, while the retirement-ready Supra runs up to more than 1 million kroner.
