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Toyota confirms the US will get a GR hot hatch

Ten bucks says it's a Corolla.

Steven Ewing Former managing editor
Steven Ewing spent his childhood reading car magazines, making his career as an automotive journalist an absolute dream job. After getting his foot in the door at Automobile while he was still a teenager, Ewing found homes on the mastheads at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog and Motor1.com before joining the CNET team in 2018. He has also served on the World Car Awards jury. Ewing grew up ingrained in the car culture of Detroit -- the Motor City -- before eventually moving to Los Angeles. In his free time, Ewing loves to cook, binge trash TV and play the drums.
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2021 Toyota GR Yaris
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2021 Toyota GR Yaris

No, we aren't getting the GR Yaris, but we are getting something.

 Toyota

Earlier this week, Toyota VP Jack Hollis told us the Gazoo Racing badge will make its way to more models in the US. No, we aren't getting the hot little GR Yaris sold abroad, but some kind of hot hatch is definitely headed our way.

"While GR Yaris isn't hitting the States... perhaps it's time the US got a hot hatch to call its own," Toyota tweeted on Thursday. The company won't officially say if the new hot hatch is the , but like, come on.

This announcement jibes with an earlier report from Car and Driver, saying Toyota will put the Yaris GR's 1.6-liter turbo I3 engine under the hood of the . That means the Corolla GR would theoretically produce around 260 horsepower, which would slot it above the 228-hp in terms of output.

Toyota isn't saying anything else at the moment, though the company did launch a teaser page on its US website, where folks can sign up to receive updates. Considering the Corolla hatchback is already pretty darn good in its nonperformance form, we're stoked about the idea of a proper GR version. You'll never hear us complain about another hot hatch for the US.

2021 Toyota GR Yaris is rally glory homologated

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