Rumours of a Toyota GR Corolla hot hatch to compete with the likes of the Volkswagen Golf 8 R have persisted, leading to a fresh rendering out of Germany.

A digital artist over at Auto Bild created the render you see above, handing the imagined hot hatch suitably more aggressive styling cues than those displayed by the standard model.

While the rear end gains a cheeky spoiler, it’s up from the digital artist made the most drastic changes, lending the GR-branded Corolla hatch a squared-off grille and side air-inlets clearly inspired by those of the smaller, SA-bound GR Yaris.

Of course, the long-rumoured GR Corolla is expected to employ the same G16E-GTS turbocharged 1,6-litre, three-cylinder petrol mill as the aforementioned GR Yaris, likely with slightly higher peak outputs (for the record, the JDM-spec GR Yaris makes 200 kW and 370 N.m). All-wheel drive seems likely as well, as does a six-speed manual gearbox. Whether Toyota will offer a self-shifting option remains to be seen.

Talk of a hot Corolla hatch isn’t exactly new. In March 2020, for instance, Toyota filed an application to trademark the “GR Corolla” badge in Australia. Toyota in North America then seemingly confirmed the hot hatch in a social media post.

At the end of April 2020, Toyota South Africa Motors said it would “very much like” to add a high-performance GR-badged Corolla to its line-up but pointed out such a model had yet to be confirmed. Still, the latest reports suggest a launch date as far away as 2023 has been pencilled in, so we’re likely facing quite a wait…