All-New Toyota Celica All But Confirmed

It must be one of the worst-kept secrets in the automotive industry, and now more details have been revealed about the return of the Toyota Celica.

Toyota North America’s Senior Vice President of Product Planning and Strategy, Cooper Ericksen, reportedly told US website MotorTrend a prototype had been shown to dealers behind closed doors – but stopped short of confirming it could be given the Celica name.

However, in November 2024, Toyota’s Chief Technology Officer Hiroki Nakajima told a crowd at the Japanese round of the World Rally Championship, “We’re doing the Celica!”.

In February 2025, Toyota also trademarked the ‘GR Celica’ name – with the model expected to join the GR86, GR Yaris, GR Corolla, and GR Supra in the company’s performance-car ranks.

Though the resurrection of once-popular models are often reported in the media, according to Mr Ericksen, the company is already running prototypes of the forthcoming vehicle on the road – likely with the body of another popular model fitted to help avoid detection.

These digital illustrations by Japan’s BestCar (top and below) – which is known for getting an early look at Toyota products – offer our best glimpse at what we can expect from the Celica.

While earlier generations of Celica were rear-wheel drive, the model switched to front-wheel drive in the 1980s, before being discontinued in 2006.

To ensure the Celica doesn’t eat into sales of the rear-wheel-drive GR86 and GR Supra, the model could come to market as a front-wheel drive – to compete with the likes of the upcoming Honda Prelude.

However, another likely scenario is the GR Celica is launched with all-wheel drive, like the turbocharged Celica GT4 limited-edition models of the 1980s and 1990s, which were homologation specials for the World Rally Championship.

Given how advanced the Toyota Celica seems to be in development, expect to see the car unveiled at some point in 2026.