Toyota could reveal a hotter GR Prius at January’s Tokyo Auto Show, local reports say. A 2023 Le Mans concept already showed us how aggressive a GR Prius could look. RAV4 GR Sport’s 324 hp hybrid system would deliver hot hatch-grade performance. The humble Prius has always majored on saving fuel, transporting Uber passengers and being the all-round sensible choice. Now Toyota might let Gazoo Racing loose on it, possibly on the way out the door. Japanese reports claim a GR-flavored Prius could appear as soon as January, potentially giving this generation of the hybrid an unexpectedly fun send-off if the rumors about its future prove correct. Also: Toyota Prius Sales Are Falling And These 2027 Updates Won’t Help Japanese outlet Creative311 cites Best Car as reporting that Toyota is weighing whether to phase out the Prius over slow sales (down 42% in the States this year), with the next Corolla range possibly expanding to fill the gap. Nothing is confirmed, and Toyota hasn’t commented. But if the world’s most famous hybrid is nearing the end, the company could send it off with either a full GR or, more likely, a milder GR Sport version at the Tokyo Auto Salon in January 2027. Toyota Prius 24h Le Mans Centennial GR Edition There are no spy shots or technical details yet, so apply the usual industrial quantity of salt to this latest version of a rumor we’ve heard before. But Toyota has already given us a pretty good idea of how a Prius wearing serious motorsport hardware might look, so we known it’s at least been considering the idea of a GR Prius. The Prius 24h Le Mans Centennial GR Edition concept appeared in 2023 (see gallery above and at the bottom), celebrating the race’s 100th anniversary with aero inspired by Toyota’s GR010 Hybrid racer. It gained a wider stance, carbon-fiber hood and roof, front canards, a deep splitter and chunky sill extensions. Things got even crazier behind the doors. Toyota fitted rear wheel spats that incorporated vents, plus a spoiler, giant diffuser and more carbon. A showroom GR Prius would almost certainly tone down the posturing, but our exclusive Carscoops rendering (below) shows how it could look. RAV4 GR Sport Transplant? Illustration Thanos Pappas for Carscoops The disappointing part about that concept was what didn’t change. Its hybrid powertrain remained standard, something a proper production GR really ought to address. Today’s Prius offers front- and all-wheel drive configurations, and regular hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains. The punchiest is the front-drive PHEV, known previously in America as the Prius Prime, whose 2.0-liter setup develops 220 hp (223 PS) and gets it to 60 mph (97 kmh) in 6.6 seconds. But Toyota already has something much tastier sitting on the corporate shelf, if it wants to go further than tuning the 2.0 package. The new RAV4 GR Sport combines a 2.5-liter engine with plug-in hybrid hardware for 324 hp and all-wheel drive, enough to propel the considerably bulkier SUV to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds. That might be too ambitious, but even the 264 hp (268 PS) of Europe’s front-wheel drive RAV4 PHEV would give the Prius a big performance boost. Whether Toyota actually intends anything that wild is pure speculation for now, as are reports that the Prius will be killed off, for that matter. But if it really is approaching the end, going from hypermiling hero to 300-plus-horsepower GR hooligan would be one hell of a retirement party. Toyota Prius 24h Le Mans Centennial GR Edition
