Toyota’s Goal Is to Make “One Too Few” GR Corollas
The Toyota GR Corolla is coming later this year and it appears to be all that we were hoping for. The only questions remaining are whether you'll be able to get one and how much it'll cost. And while Toyota isn't confirming anything about pricing, the company tells Road & Track that the special, hands-on Motomachi production facility will be able to meet the demand for the GR Corolla.
"I wouldn't say the limiting factor on these vehicles is our ability to produce them," Toyota Vice President of Marketing Mike Tripp told R&T. "It's being very careful to make sure that we maintain the niche credibility."
The right amount to ensure that while expanding the brand, Tripp says, is "one too few."
It's a similar strategy employed by high-end automakers like Porsche, who carefully calibrate production capacity to ensure there's never an over-supply of their most exciting vehicles. After all, unsold inventory shatters the illusion that a car is highly sought-after.
Toyota's maintaining flexibility for that reason, but Tripp says the company is predicting that a full year of sales will end up around 8000 units. Expect 2023 to fall shy of that number, with the production ramp and limited early availability limiting total sales to around 6000 cars.
The company also intends to keep the Corolla fresh and in-demand by rolling out updates and special editions. The first special edition is the Circuit Edition, for which Toyota hasn't shared production run plans. But Tripp told R&T to expect one each special edition to make it to most dealers, putting minimum production numbers around 1250.
"When it comes to something that's this niche, it's important to us that we give every dealer the opportunity to get one," Tripp said. "So if you do the math—and this is no guarantee—if we have a special edition for every dealer, that's 1250-ish. So when you have a total volume of somewhere between 6000 and 8000, and a special edition that's 1250 of that, we think that's the right balance. But one too few will be our goal, just not because of production limits."
You Might Also Like
