NOW we want a Toyota Yaris. 400bhp-plus Yaris Hybrid-R

Rental car gone mental. Toyota unleashes 414bhp Yaris Hybrid-R for Frankfurt Motor Show.

Across the Middle East, and particularly in crankandpiston‘s home city of Dubai, there are plenty of examples of the Toyota Yaris buzzing about. It’s most people’s rental car of choice, which means it’s one of the most common sights on the street. It’s not really what we’d call exciting though. There are slightly hot versions of the Yaris available in Europe, but even they’re not particularly scintillating.

This, on the other hand, looks like a riot. Toyota is unveiling the Yaris Hybrid-R at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week, which boasts a turbocharged 1.6-litre engine from Toyota Motorsport (TMG) attached to two electric motor that together produce an output of 414bhp. That’s the same as the old Audi RS4. In a Yaris. Wowsers.

The combustion engine drives the front wheels, while the rear wheels have an electric motor each. So in effect, you have four-wheel drive, with the rear wheels harvesting energy during braking to be redeployed when accelerating. There’s a third electric motor between the engine and six-speed sequential transmission which works as a generator – feeding the super capacitor during braking and powering the rear electric motors when the delivered power overwhelms the front wheels. Think of it as an advanced traction control system, redirecting excess torque as electric energy to the rear wheels. Where traditional traction control limits power, this redirects it to improve acceleration and handling as necessary. Clever stuff.

The bad news is that this is just a concept, and frankly we’ll be staggered if it comes even close to production. But it’s a very cool showcase for Toyota‘s new technology, and perhaps it could mean some sort of more sporty Yaris in the future. We’d be up for that.