Despite the debut of the new Subaru BRZ, Toyota has remained very silent about the future of the next generation 86. A new design brand registration in Australia may give us the first glimpse of the front bumper of the new sports coupe.
IP Australia shows the owners of this project like Subaru and Toyota. As 86 and BRZ are a joint venture between these automakers, it makes sense that they both have this brand. They filed the paperwork on October 30, 2020, and the office published the information on January 18.
The images also show the lower front panel with the headlight cutouts. The grid has a trapezoidal shape with lateral widening from top to bottom. The hexagonal mesh is in the center. The narrow, sharp entries in the corners have horizontal grooves within their openings.
Subaru BRZ front with zoom
Toyota 86 front bumper design file
Archiving of the Subaru BRZ front bumper design
The above comparison shows the new BRZ and two records from Toyota and Subaru for front fascias. Seeing them all together makes it clear that the newly registered part has significant differences from BRZ. Most notably, the grid is taller and has a more rounded outline compared to the sharper edges of the other design.
Although this project belonging to the Toyota 86 seems the most likely outcome, we cannot entirely rule out that this project may be for the hottest BRZ that is in a recent spy video. The vehicle in that clip was camouflaged and did not appear to use that front end. The development team may have kept things under wraps, however.
While Toyota is not talking about the new 86 yet, the 2022 BRZ will go on sale in the US in the fall. Since the two models are so similar, we expect them to arrive at the showrooms at about the same time.
