In France, the Toyota GR Yaris Can Costs As Much As RM559,570!

Updated and upgraded 2024 Toyota GR Yarisrevealed last month at the Tokyo Auto Salon 2024.

The recently updated Toyota GR Yaris may have ruffled a few feathers thanks to both its adoption of an automatic transmission option and the fact that it’s no longer a limited-run homologation special. However, French fans of the hot hatch have a much bigger reason to fume over.

That’s because for the French market, the rally-rep hot hatch commands astronomical price tags thanks to the country’s hefty carbon emissions (CO2) taxes levied. In both manual and automatic guises, the GR Yaris’ CO2 tax in said market equates to a similar amount as the model’s base price.

Thanks to hefty CO2 emission taxes, the rally-rep hot hatch commands an eye-watering price tag in France - upwards of €108,800, or approx. RM559,570!

A quick check online through the Toyota France website shows that French buyers will need to pre-order the GR Yaris right now where  base prices (sans options) starts at €46,300 (approx. RM2381,256) for the 6-speed MT variant, and €48,800 (approx. RM250,984) for the new 8AT variant.

Thanks to the 1.6-litre 3-cyl turbocharged mill’s claimed 190 g/KM claimed CO2 average, French buyers will need to top up a further €45,990 (approx. RM236,531) for its CO2 tax payable to the French government when purchasing said hot hatch.

Altogether, French buyers will have to fork out upwards of €108,800 (approx. RM559,570) to purchase the GR Yaris, and that’s before factoring other on-road costs – i.e. insurance, registration, etc.

Much of that eye-watering figure is driven by the GR Yaris' 1.6-litre 3-cyl turbo heart's claimed average CO2 emissions of 190 g/KM.

In contrast, the CO2 tax levied on the previous GR Yaris sold in France only amounted to €14,881 (approx. RM76,535) last year (2023), and an even lower €12,012 (approx. RM61,779) in 2022.

The latest price mentioned boils down to the fact that French car buyers who buy cars that emit up to 117 g/km are exempted from additional taxes. Instead, said taxation scheme starts at 118 g/km with a €50 (approx. RM257) surcharge and goes up from there, topping out at €60,000 (approx. RM308,586) for vehicles that emit 194 g/km or higher.

Despite the eye-watering price, Toyota France appears optimistic. In fact, the Japanese automaker’s French arm has actually set aside an allocation of 300 units of the updated and upgraded rally-rep hot hatch for said key European market.

The 2024 Toyota GR Yaris hasn't landed in Malaysia yet, but expect it to command at least RM320,000.

Presently, the latest updated GR Yaris model isn’t offered officially in Malaysia yet, but given Toyota’s plan to make it a permanent offering, this might happen soon. UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT) did offer 200 units of the previous manual-only GR Yaris in Malaysia, each priced at RM299,900 instead.

Should this pan out, then expect the upgraded GR Yaris to cost upwards of RM320,000, and expect the automatic transmission variant to cost at least RM10,000 more than the manual option – typical of how UMWT prices its manual-boxed GR models over their automatic-boxed twins.