Toyota Is Reviving the Celica, Details Confirmed After Years of Rumors

Toyota has tried to bring the Celica back before. Back in 2017, the automaker refiled for a trademark, but it expired four years later. Last month, it claimed the Celica name again through a filing request with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), describing it as "automobiles and structural parts thereof."

In an era when automakers are marching toward electrification, preparing to roll out entirely full electric lineups in the near future, Toyota is not keen on ditching ICEs. Besides, it was late at the EV party after all and knows it can't keep up with the competition, so it is trying to compensate with petrol and diesel engines. That is exactly why Toyota might return the Celica as an ICE.

The scenario does make sense, considering that Toyota has already confirmed that it is building the world's most potent 2.0-liter engine last summer. It should be more powerful than the engine that currently sits at the top of the powerful 2.0-liter units, Mercedes-AMG’s inline-four M139.

Toyota is expected to squeeze as much as 592 horsepower (600 metric horsepower) out of its own 2.0-liter engine. Last summer, Japanese media suggested that the automaker is specifically developing the unit for the eighth-generation Celica.

The engine pumps out 416 horsepower (421 metric horsepower) and 369-pound-feet (500 Newton meters) of torque under the hood of the Mercedes-AMG A 45 S.

The lineup might as well include the 1.6-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine, integrated in a hybrid system, that powers the Toyota GR Yaris. While purists are begging for a manual, we have yet to see if that will come to the market or not.

The revival has been confirmed by the auto giant's chief technology officer, Hiroi Nakajima. "There are many people within the company who are eagerly awaiting the Celica," the Toyota executive said in a conversation with Best Car at the World Rally Championship over the weekend.

"I wonder if it is ok to say this in a public forum, but we are doing the Celica," Nakajima confirmed, months after the carmaker filed the trademark. However, he informed the local media that there was no sign of the model yet.

If the translation from Japanese is accurate, the Celica will return to the market after an almost two-decade hiatus. The last Celica of the seventh generation rolled off the production line on April 21, 2006. During its final year in production, the model was available only on the local and European markets.

Last year, a month after having been elected president of Toyota, Koji Sato announced: "I want to revive the Celica." Therefore, the new statements confirm what we have been expecting for years.