Yaris Hatchback

Make
Toyota
Segment
Hatchback

Toyota has been promising a new hot hatch for over a month now. And it's not the automaker's fault that we haven't seen it yet. But it has rescheduled the pocket rocket's debut for the Tokyo Auto Salon that's set to open its doors in less than a month from now.

Dubbed the Toyota GR Yaris, the new hot hatch will be the second vehicle launched under the Gazoo Racing banner, following the GR Supra. And that bodes rather well, we'd say, for the performance potential promised by Gazoo's "all-new, rally-inspired sports car."

The Japanese automaker first dropped hints at the forthcoming GR Yaris a little over a month ago, promising at the time that it would unveil the thing at Rally Australia on November 17. The trouble was that the event was called off due to wildfires that ravaged the section of the Outback in which the rally was supposed to be held. That left the championship to be decided retroactively – with Toyota's Ott Tänak to be crowned drivers' champion (and his navigator Martin Järveoja named co-drivers' champ along with him), but rival Hyundai (to which he's going next season) taking the manufacturers' title.

Not to be deterred, Toyota has rescheduled the hot hatch's debut for Tokyo next month, releasing a couple more teaser images in the meantime to follow the video clip from last week. And when it is finally unveiled, it promises to be a real firecracker.

We're expecting all-wheel drive and some form of forced induction to feature, and potentially outshine even the previous Yaris GRMN (pictured below in white). What we're not expecting, however, is for the new GR Yaris to be sold in America, where subcompact hot hatches are falling out of favor, and where the local Yaris (pictured above in blue) is a completely different model from the overseas version (pictured, red) upon which this one is based.