CARS OF THE WORLD

Toyota MR2 2025.

The new Toyota MR2 will debut in 2025 as a traditional mid-engine sports car.

According to fresh insider data, the upcoming mid-engine Toyota MR2 sports car will replace the current Toyota GR86 coupe with a classic layout.

The new sports car will not have a clone under the Subaru brand. The 300-horsepower 1.6-liter turbocharged petrol engine of the MR2 will be borrowed from the GR Yaris hot hatch.

Rumors about the revival of the Toyota MR2 sports car have been circulating on the Internet since the discontinuation of its third generation W30 in 2007.

The first generation Toyota MR2 W10 was released back in 1984; this model was produced in coupe and targa bodies.

The second generation W20 had the same form factor, but the third generation got a roadster body with a folding soft top.

All three generations were united by a mid-engine layout, exciting handling and relatively affordable prices.

The MR2 niche in the Toyota lineup was occupied by the GT86 coupe, which debuted in 2011, now called the GR86, but its life cycle after a formal change of generations in 2021 (formal, because the second generation is, in fact, a restyling of the first generation model) is coming to an end , since the model is morally and technically outdated.

Last year, Toyota unveiled the FT-Se concept sports car (pictured in the title photo): it has an electric powertrain and proportions typical of a gasoline mid-engine model.

It is known that the FT-Se is a preparation for a new junior sports car from Toyota, however, according to the Greek magazine Autotriti, citing various Japanese sources, Toyota is preparing not one, but two new small sports cars — the fourth generation MR2 with a gasoline engine and, in fact, , the production version of the electric FT-Se.

The new MR2 will make its world premiere in 2025 and enter the market in 2026, and a serial electric sports car will join the range in 2027.

It is still unknown whether gasoline and electric sports cars will be unified.

We would venture to assume that they will have a common platform, but different designs and, most likely, different names.

If you believe the rumors, the MR2 will be quite conservative in terms of technology: the 1.6-liter turbo engine from the GR Yaris will be combined with a 6-speed manual or 8-speed automatic transmission, with rear-wheel drive.

Even the approximate dimensions of the new MR2 are known: overall length — 4400 mm, width — 1850 mm, height — 1230 mm, wheelbase — 2600 mm.

Target curb weight is 1300 kg. The body type is still unknown, there are few options here — coupe, targa or roadster.

Let us add that Toyota is in no hurry to completely switch to electric vehicles due to their technological imperfection at the current stage of evolution, so the company has and will have new “hydrocarbon” and hybrid models in its plans.

Europe, we recall, intends to introduce a ban on the sale of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines running on fossil fuels in 2035.

If such a ban is actually introduced, it will be a serious blow for Toyota, since the European market is one of its key ones, but there is still a lot of time until 2035, and turning-point events on a global scale are now developing so quickly that they can force the European bureaucracy change mind.