Toyota G20E: Everything We Know About The 2.0 Liter Turbo Engine

At the 2025 Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota debuted a concept car that would make the V6 Renault Clio blush: a mid-engine GR Yaris boasting a brand-new G20E powerplant (Japanese, translated by author). Dubbed the "Yaris M Concept," with the "M" standing for "Morizo," the car features a highly modified 4WD system which essentially reverses the layout of the front and rear drivetrain components. Meaning the front transaxle and differential now sit in the rear, and vice versa. According to driver and technical engineer Yasuo Hirata, the model is still very much in the concept-prototype stage, though the car is fully functional and race-ready. An expert panel of six key personnel discussed the Yaris M on-stage, describing the internals and driving experience in detail.

According to the panel attending the Auto Salon's livestream called "Creating Better Cars with Motorsports," they placed the engine midships to improve weight distribution and responsiveness. Driver Masahiro Sasaki, who tested an early prototype with a 1.6L powerplant, stated that he believes the Yaris M will feel very "sharp," and that the car should be "driven by trained drivers." But he later added, this factor proved "fundamental ... to the fun-factor of the car."

Sasaki's sentiments relayed a car which commands great respect, but will reward that with a truly superb driving experience for those with the skills to handle it. In other words, this Yaris, even with modern 4WD, could very well be the closest thing to finding a Group B homologation special with a 2025 warranty sticker on it. And lying at the heart of this beast rests a fantastic new powerplant: the G20E 2.0L turbo inline-four. Let's take a look under the hood — trunk – and see what sort of figures this engine touts, along with everything new they revealed so far.

The anatomy of this engine greatly differs from the traditional GR Yaris powerplant. For starters, the new engine features an extra cylinder, bringing total displacement up to 2.0L (done purposefully to comply with 2000cc engine regulations). Currently, the team is designing this as a joint motorsport-passenger car engine, with the final output aimed at 400PS (394 horsepower) and 500Nm (369 lb-ft) torque. Passenger cars can expect a detuned variant down to 296 horsepower and 295 lb-ft torque. However, according to Toyota themselves, the engine may produce as much as 600 horsepower with some modifications, and chairman "Morizo" Toyoda himself championed the 2.0L powertrain concept (via Forbes).

We do also know that the Yaris M will feature the same ITCC clutch by JTEKT for AWD, sending power to the front as needed. As such, power distribution will now fluctuate between no power sent forward, to a 50:50 split and anywhere in between, as required. The biggest issue so far appears to be the cooling, and Toyota is keeping a tight lip here. There's a large gap in the design blueprint's front end, which leaves the components in the Yaris M's nose entirely up to speculation, apart from the radiator in its usual forward-mounted position.

So far, the vehicle is still in relatively early stages of development, so there's no word on torque curve or peak RPM. Similarly, they haven't released any information on the particulars of the internal anatomy. But the general design appears to be robust bordering on overbuilt, in a more old-school Toyota engine-building tradition. According to Toyota's Vice President Hiroki Nakajima, in a response to the query of whether the engine has 400 horsepower, he suggested that "there is more horsepower," and you "may be surprised by the commercial variant." Overall, this engine appears poised to cement the Yaris as the current reigning champion of the hot hatch. It certainly provides healthy competition for other legendary JDM powerplants, and a unique driving experience to boot. Hopefully this variant debuts outside Japan as well, but only time will tell.