Toyota Is Replacing the Old Yaris with a Rebadged Mazda 2 Hatchback
It seems that Toyota and Mazda's partnership on subcompacts is expanding to include the hatchback version of the Yaris. The old Toyota-built Yaris hatchback is going away for the 2019 model year and a new hatchback model is coming for 2020, according to Toyota spokesperson Nancy Hubbell. We assume this means that the new Yaris hatchback (illustrated above) will be a rebadged Mazda 2, like the current Yaris sedan that Mazda builds for Toyota in Mexico.
The new Mazda-based Yaris hatchback is likely to use the same 1.5-liter inline-four engine as the sedan, paired with either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission. As we've shown in our illustration, the new Yaris hatch should also share the Yaris sedan's revised front-end styling while keeping the Mazda 2 hatchback's bodywork mostly unchanged otherwise.
All U.S. Yarises Will Be Rebadged Mazdas
Toyota and Mazda originally teamed up to create the Scion iA, a rebadged version of the Mazda 2 sedan that debuted as a 2016 model. When the Scion brand was shuttered, the iA was renamed to become the Toyota Yaris iA, which was sold alongside the outgoing Yaris hatchback, itself built by Toyota in France. For 2019, Toyota dropped the iA from the Mazda-based Yaris's name to create the 2019 Yaris sedan. The complex lineage of Toyota's subcompact lineup will finally be simplified when the new Yaris hatchback arrives, as both versions of the Yaris sold in the United States will soon be rebadged Mazdas. Toyota's global plans for the Yaris are unclear at this point.
This change is overdue, as the outgoing Yaris hatchback, which is built in France, has been around for many years without major updates. It still uses a four-speed automatic transmission, which should tell you more than enough about its age. The Mazda-based Yaris has also been far outselling the Toyota-built Yaris hatch in the States: the sedan recorded 25,269 sales in 2018 to the hatchback's paltry 1940 units.
Toyota will release more information about the 2020 Yaris at the New York auto show in April.
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