(c) Bertel Schmitt
Rumors that Toyota would turn its Gazoo Racing Team into a performance sub-brand had been floating around Tokyo for more than a year. Today, it became official.
“The decision was made to launch a new sports brand, the GR brand,” Shigeki Tomoyama, CEO of GR, said at an event at Toyota’s Megaweb in Tokyo.
As expected, GR becomes Toyota’s performance sub-brand, something like BMW’s M, Mercedes’s AMG, Volkswagen’s R or Lexus’s F. The GR brand is being launched with nine models, ranging from a souped-up GR 86, on the basis of Toyota’s 86 sports car, all the way to a hot-rod GR Sport Voxy minivan.
Tomoyama is Toyota’s multi-role executive: He is also in charge of Toyota Marine, Toyota’s connected car business, and he is Toyota’s chief information security officer.
Initially, the GR brand will be focused on Japan, supported by a series of “GR Garage”-themed shop-in-shop systems at Toyota dealerships, many of them converted “Area 86” shops, which will cease to exist.
Starting with a GR-series Yaris in Europe, the brand will be rolled out internationally.
