- Toyota’s GR division boss doesn’t believe it can develop its own sports cars.
- Toyota worked with Subaru on the GR 86 / BRZ and BMW for the Supra / Z4.
- Japanese reports had suggested the MR2 could be revived as early as 2025.
Toyota appears unlikely to launch a new sports car developed solely in-house as the Japanese company believes collaborating with other brands remains the best way to develop such models.
Even though Toyota went alone on the rally-bred GR Yaris and GR Corolla, the GR 86 was co-developed with Subaru, while the GR Supra was a joint project with BMW. GR president Tomoya Takahashi recently spoke to journalists, indicating this collaborative approach will be the way forward.
Read: Toyota Celica Rumored To Return With Turbo 2.0-Liter Engine And AWD
“I want to work with a smile on my face,” he told Cars Guide. “If I’m not smiling, I can not make the customer smile. The sports car market is shrinking in the future. We cannot maintain sports cars as one brand, Toyota. Collaboration between brands will increase in the future. We don’t know with whom we’re going to collaborate.”
Earlier this year, reports surfaced out of Japan that suggested Toyota was developing a next-generation MR2. That report claimed the car could debut as early as the end of 2025 and hit the market with the same 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine as the GR Corolla and GR Yaris.
Takahashi’s statements could rule out this new model. The new MR2 was thought to be an in-house project, but the bean counters at Toyota don’t appear interested in going it alone with a new sports car. If GR doesn’t know with whom they could collaborate for future sports cars, then a new MR2 could be off the table until Toyota can find another suitable automaker to work with in order to make it a reality.
One tempting proposition would be a collaboration with Mazda. The two carmakers already operate a U.S. factory and have partnered to develop next-generation internal combustion engines. Mazda is also thought to be working on a new sports car based on the Iconic SP concept, and a next-generation MX-5 is on the horizon. Could Toyota and Mazda work together on a pair of sports cars?
“It’s not for one manufacturer to survive, but to protect car enthusiasts,” Takahashi added. “Our mission is to make car guys smile, so we need to collaborate sometimes.”
While some may want Toyota to go it alone, if creating sports cars that leave enthusiasts smiling means it must team up with another automaker, who are we to complain?
