New Toyota Celica In “Advanced Development”, Says Exec

Next year will mark 20 years since the Toyota Celica went out of production, but it’s looking increasingly likely that it’ll also be the year the coupe nameplate makes a comeback.

Following a year or so of rumours, multiple Toyota execs have flat-out said a new Celica is in the works, with development mules apparently running around. There is one big caveat to all this, though – the car might not yet have been given final sign-off for production.

What hints have there been about a new Toyota Celica?

Celica revival rumours have been swirling for a while, but we first started taking them seriously last year when Toyota chairman and all-round cool guy Akio Toyoda outright stated: “I want to revive the Celica.” Since then, Best Car, a major Japanese car magazine and website, has repeatedly drip-fed alleged information about the car’s possible return.

Toyota itself has dropped further hints, too. One of these came, rather unexpectedly, in Grip, a tie-in anime series that Toyota published on its US YouTube channel. The first episode of the second series features a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene showing a whiteboard in a Toyota Gazoo Racing workshop, on which a list of all the current sports car projects Toyota is rumoured to be working on, including ‘Celica Mk8’.

And now, we have yet more strong evidence – and it doesn’t seem to get much more close to official than this. Best Car directly asked the manufacturer’s chief technical officer Hiroki Nakajima the question. His response?

Translated, that was: “We’re making the Celica.”

Presumably, it’ll be some time away though. Nakajima added: “To be honest, there is no sign of it right now. However, there are many people within the company who are eagerly awaiting the Celica. So...I wonder if it's okay to say this in a public forum, but we're doing the Celica”

Another all-but-confirmation came in a June 2025 Motor Trend interview with Cooper Ericksen, Toyota’s North American senior vice president of product planning and strategy. He said: “Bottom line is we are working on a product that could theoretically go by the Celica name, if we can figure out how to pull it off and it gets approved.” He went on to confirm that there’s a running development mule for the car.

However, Ericksen’s comments do mean we have to temper our expectations a little, as he suggests that the car hasn’t yet been given full sign-off for production by management. It’s possible, though, that he’s referring to sign-off for sales in North America, as he goes on to mention that development is being handled by Toyota in Japan, saying: “It’s a big wait and see. I’m just hopeful that we can get something.”

Nonetheless, if full production sign-off hasn’t yet been given, we’re pretty optimistic it will. Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda has been very vocal in his desire to get more enthusiast cars on the market, so we hold out hope that he’ll push to get the Celica approved, especially considering all the hints the company has dropped so far.

Adding further fuel to the fire is that in October 2024, Toyota trademarked the Celica name with the US Patent and Trademark Office, under the category “automobiles and structural parts thereof.” A similar trademark was filed in Australia. While it’s not uncommon for carmakers to renew or re-file trademarks on dormant names as a bit of futureproofing, it feels like more than just a coincidence at this point.

Then, in February 2025, the name was trademarked in Brazil, too – this time with the telltale letters ‘GR’ in front of ‘Celica’, strongly hinting that it’ll be part of Toyota’s Gazoo Racing performance lineup alongside the likes of the GR Yaris, GR Corolla and GR86.

Is anyone helping Toyota develop the new Celica?

Toyota’s most recent sports cars have all been joint projects between it and another manufacturer – the new Supra was developed alongside the BMW Z4, and the GT86 and GR86 are both Subaru tie-ins.

It would seem, though, that like the rumoured new MR2, Toyota is going it alone with the new Celica. That’s despite comments made by Tomoya Takahashi, president of Toyota’s GR performance wing, earlier in 2024. He said that “collaboration between brands will increase in the future” for performance car projects.

What engine will the new Toyota Celica have?

According to Japanese outlet Best Car – the source of many of the rumours around the new Celica – the car is set to use Toyota’s currently in-development turbocharged inline-four engine.

This is an all-new unit, announced earlier this year and designed with the inclusion of hybrid powertrains in mind, although there’s no mention of the Celica getting any electrified element. The car’s specifically rumoured to be using the top road-going version of the engine, a 2.0-litre item producing around 395bhp.

In the Celica, this could be paired with four-wheel drive and a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic gearbox. The four-wheel drive system is likely to be the same torque-splitting GR-Four system found on the current GR Yaris and GR Corolla.

Meanwhile, when asked by Ericksen whether the Celica could be electrified in some form, he had this to say: “I’m not closing the door to a vehicle that is ultra lightweight, that has a super advanced system but is still a traditional ICE. It could be something that does not have an electric drive.”

How much will the new Toyota Celica cost?

According to the plethora of Best Car rumours, Toyota is eyeing a more upmarket, luxurious approach for the new Celica – the Audi Quattro has been specifically mentioned as a source of inspiration, albeit with 2020s tech rather than 1980s.

It’s far too early to start speculating on price, especially as this often wildly varies between markets, but if this more premium positioning is true, it’s safe to assume it won’t be a performance bargain.

Will the new Toyota Celica come to the UK?

This is the real kicker for us – it’s simply not that easy to sell new sports cars in Europe anymore. The GR86 and Supra are both no longer available new in the UK, where Toyota’s sole performance offering is now the GR Yaris, sold in fairly limited quantities.

So far, none of these rumours have touched on where the new Celica could be sold, but we’re mentally preparing ourselves for it to not make it to Europe. Indeed, some reports have suggested that the new MR2 could be exclusive to the Japanese market – if the same ends up being true for the Celica, there’ll at least be right-hand drive examples to import. The trademark filings, though, hint it could also be making it to the US and Australia.

When will we see the new Toyota Celica?

Per Best Car, the new Celica is due to be launched in 2026.