Akio Toyoda would like to bring the driving excitement back to Toyota, but they have two major hurdles to overcome: First is the brands's limited enthusiast base and another one is that Japan's youth have very little interest on cars.
To overcome both these hurdles, Toyota plans to launch budget-oriented vehicles that offer a modicum of sport. But so far, things don't look too promising.
Despite debuting an FT-86-based concept at this year's Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota's G Sports line of products have mainly focused on the Voxy and Noah minivans, while a "sports" version of the Prius is apparently in the works.
More interestingly, the Mainichi Daily News reports that a version of the GRMN sports car concept has been given the greenlight, meaning a mid-engined hybrid successor to the MR2 is in the works.
All these developments came after the establishment of a sports vehicle management division which now has a hand in the brand's overall product planning.
Source: http://www.autoblog.com/
