255-hp Toyota GR86 and other big news leaks in dealer presentation

Last month, Motor1 said it received information on Toyota and Lexus product plans for the next few years from an inside source who attended a dealer presentation. To protect the source, Motor1 didn’t publish any slides or proof from that presentation. A snippet of what happened behind closed doors has found its way online, Allcarnews posting one of the slides yesterday, as well as its own recap of the Japanese automaker’s plans that mirrors the Motor1 report. If all of this is true, not only is there a ton of product in the works, but Toyota and Lexus lineups will get more interesting while answering the requests of several enthusiast groups.

We’ll start with the 86, then go by model year after that. The next-gen coupe developed with Subaru should sit on Toyota’s TNGA platform and get a rebrand to wear the GR86 name, for Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division. The real hallelulah happens under the hood, where a turbocharged four-cylinder is expected to produce 255 hp, a 50-hp jump over the present model. Look for an upgraded interior, too. The debut is slated for summer 2021, possibly July.   

This year:

The fall season should introduce a new crossover and a new Sienna with hybrid powertrains only. The current minivan has been on sale since 2010, getting a minor refresh in front in 2018. The crossover will be a five-seat midsizer that brings back the Venza name, this model already rumored here and abroad. It, too, will only get hybrid powertrains. Both planned as 2021-model-year products, it’s possible their motivations will be based on the 2.5-liter four-cylinder in both the RAV4 and Highlander hybrids. And a refreshed Camry might come later this year as a 2021MY sedan. 

2021:

Next year will be a busy one. …

On the Toyota side, and as TFL has reported, the all-new Tundra that’s first to sit on the TNGA-F truck platform will show in December 2021 as a 2022MY pickup. Rumor has the top model powered by a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 hybrid with around 455 hp and 500 pound-feet of torque, perhaps distinguished by the i-Force Max name that Toyota recently applied to trademark. A few months before that, Toyota will roll out a Corolla-based crossover maybe called the Corolla Cross, and potentially built in the U.S. at the Alabama facility being constructed with Mazda. And remember, a Toyota exec teased a small hot hatch for this market as well, “an answer” to the GR Yaris sold in Europe, which Car and Driver figures will be based on the Corolla. The Avalon and RAV4 get refreshed looks for the 2022MY, along with facelifts for the Lexus ES and LS sedans and UX crossover for 2022.

The bigger news for Lexus in 2021 would be the debut of a next-generation IS sedan, the current third-generation model on sale since 2013, last updated in 2016. The NX crossover could also debut a brand new model on the TNGA-K platform, bringing “strikingly avant-garde design with revolutionary tech,” a 2.5-liter PHEV powertrain with 40 miles of all-electric range among its five rumored powertrains, and a 14-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The GS sport sedan, long left in limbo, finally dies. In its place could come a Lexus-badged version of the hydrogen fuel-cell Toyota Mirai.   

2022:

Toyota seems to have penciled in the all-new Sequoia and 4Runner for the 2023 model year, both expected on the TNGA-F architecture shared with the Tundra. The Sequoia, as with the Tundra, will give up its 5.7-liter V8 and top out at the twin-turbo hybrid V6. The 4Runner is also said to get the new V6, but we wonder if that will be in naturally aspirated or full-bore twin-turbo form. Sticking with crossovers, the presentation apparently showed a new Lexus RX arriving for the 2023MY as “a much better executed three-row” product on the TNGA-K architecture, and this will be the final year of production for the current Lexus GX.

The flagship LC-F will debut Lexus’ new twin-turbo V8 engine in 2022, and then share that mill with the all-new Lexus LX SUV, according to Allcarnews. The top-tier family hauler is said to stretch way upmarket, offering the twin-turbo V6 as well, becoming “an entirely different vehicle” compared to what we have today. Around this same time, Toyota and Lexus will no longer offer V8 engines in any of their vehicles priced below $90,000.

2023:

Toyota will bring us the next-generation Camry sedan and Tacoma pickup as 2024MY vehicles, and whatever replaces the Lexus GX will debut.

The only development that doesn’t have a potential date attached concerns welcome news for the next-generation Toyota Land Cruiser. With the Lexus LX positioned to corner the luxury market, the leaked info claims the Land Cruiser will become a five-seat-only “hardcore off-roader” that’s also sold in the U.S., and at much lower prices than the present model.