Featured 2020 Corolla Hybrid Sedan (Yes, for the US)

We already knew it was coming. The plan for years from Toyota has been to offer their entire passenger vehicle line with a hybrid option. The Corolla hybrid is already available in some other market and next year it will be offered as a PHEV model in China.

The next-gen Camry hybrid is amazing and we can see the same thing on the way for the next-gen RAV4 hybrid. Of course, there's Prius Prime too. We've come to expect Toyota to be comprehensive, affordable, and reliable with its tech.

 

I expect the hybrid will use the new dynamic force 2L hybrid engine and power train.
2.0-liter Toyota Hybrid System (THS II) | TOYOTA Global Newsroom

Why 2L instead of 1.8L like the current prius? Toyota said they had trouble getting direct injection and port injection to work well in smaller than 0.5L cylinder size making this the least expensive small 4 cylinder engine they could achieve 41% thermal efficiency.

 

too little, too late. we need another plug in now, or a bev. this will mostly eat prius sales, unless gas prices skyrocket

 

Of course it will cannibalize Prius sales, but it may also move some civic and focus sales to corolla. These buyers are probably too price sensitive to buy a phev.

As to the other part, yes of course toyota is late to the plug-in party. They should have a dedicated phev out by now. They had the lead there are prime sales have to be showing them there is a market.

 

I just read about it on Twitter FFS, thought I was the first one but nopeeeeee lol. And it seems like it’s coming to some parts of EU aswell, but only as the 2.0L hybrid, multiple European sites have shared the picture with “@toyota_europe” tag.

And

This is really annoying... how Toyota keeps making the phev’s exclusive for China... if Toyota don’t start selling them worldwide they will start having problems with sales. Their hybrid system is amazing, but they r falling behind in every other market except the Chinese one.

 

For a company that once held Tesla stock ... not very bright.

Bob Wilson

 

Don't believe the "falling behind" rhetoric. Having a market now that's heavily subsidized and poorly informed should be major clues that something doesn't add up. Reaching ordinary consumers... which Corolla shoppers represent well... is extremely difficult. They want a basic sedan. No compromising that a hatchback requires is acceptable. They are a very different audience.

As for China getting the PHEV model first, that's our politics combined with Detroit fallout. Remember, we still don't have detail on what a midcycle update for Prime may bring.

 

heavily subsidized and poorly informed. why bother at all?

 

With the American shift away from sedans, it might not take too many Prius sales.

The Focus will soon be only available as a hatchback. These buyers are probably too price sensitive to buy a full hybrid.

Toyota would rather sell a hydrogen FCEV than a plug in. They are making more plug ins for China, because they are forced too. Chinese policies is why China got a hybrid Corolla before a generation before the rest of the world.

Elsewhere, Toyota is milking government incentives and subsidies. The ones for plain hybrids have come to an end in Japan. Initial deliveries in the US of the Prime were to CARB states to the point of over supply in some areas; the PiP never left them. ZEV credit structure, allowed them to get by by only selling a few Mirai.

 

Claims of focus solely on CARB and FCEV is just short-mindedness. We've seen a lot of that lately coming from those in a state of panic about tax-credit phaseout. Focus on early-adopter sales blinded them from issues related to mass appeal. Drawing sales from mainstream shoppers if far more difficult than the low-hanging fruit celebrations happening up to this point.

Look at the disaster from GM called Volt. It exploited tax-credits to stir a green reputation, but didn't actually change the status quo. GM didn't get their own customers to switch to a plug. They just kept buying SUVs and the variety of SUV choices were increased. The compact hatchback stayed a niche throughout the entire during of government incentive.

Think about annual sales. GM sells 3 MILLION each year in the United States. Toyota sells about 2.4 MILLION here. That puts the 200,000 tax-credit into perspective. You don't squander them by offering a niche vehicle sold as a token of change. You want to stir actual change. Appealing to early-adopters is much, much easier than getting a showroom shopper to take the purchase into serious consideration.

That's where Toyota's approach comes in. When they introduce Corolla Hybrid & PHEV here, they want high-volume right from the start. It means working out kinks in the meantime. That's what the limited market rollouts are all about. Take advantage of CARB and China for the sake of refining the product & production. It's a sensible move... even if it irritates the short-minded.

 

I guess the fix is in and the Soros-backed conspiracy du jour has again been thwarted by the God Bless America Coal Rolling Billionaire Koch-Bro buffoons...

 

was there ever a doubt? even the middle east is setting us up for a fall...

 

Late to a party for early-adopters? That's completely meaningless, having no impact in any manner for ordinary consumers.

As for "dedicated", are you really that blind? Prius hatchback from designed from day 1 to deliver EV drive. Remember way back in 2003, when we closely examined what had been delivered? That ability to travel at 100 km/h (62.1 mph) isn't a coincidence. That was quite intentional... should a battery-tech ever become available later to exploit it. That never happened, since battery-density remained far too low and battery-cost far too high. In fact, that's why the next-gen rollout was so limited, due to those same battery constraints.

Prime was the first model of Prius actually able to capitalize on that design. So what if a non-plug model filled in sales while we waited? Prius has no traditional counterpart anyway. In the meantime, we got the one-way clutch enhancement. That's a nice affordable upgrade opportunity Toyota was able to take advantage of.

Spin of somehow Toyota missing the boat requires quite a bit of turning a blind-eye about mainstream market acceptance.

That's what Corolla PHEV will be all about. Delivering technology in the most subdued way to draw interest from ordinary consumers.

 

Cars are more than just the drive train. Having electric propulsion for a hybrid isn't the same as having a car that is a balanced package of a PHEV. With the creation of TNGA, Toyota could have designed these new platforms with the needs of a PHEV, or even a BEV, in mind. Doing so would also have helped their future FCEVs. Instead, they kept the designs focused on the traditional ICE car.

Has anyone seen a photo of the Chinese Corolla PHEV trunk?

 

Once upon a time, 100% of our cars were Prius hybrids. Now it is down to 50% and the only Toyota is the Prius Prime.

Bob Wilson

 

Well, from a strictly amateur point of "view", the new Corolla sedan (regular, or hybrid) is certainly much better looking than my Prius. (And much better looking than the current Camry, too.)

I'm glad they are offering a Corolla hybrid version.... but must keep the price fairly reasonable. But the typical Corolla buyer would probably just buy the regular ICE version. I've seen the new hatchback in person; this new sedan looks much better. I will definitely be taking a look.

 

The poster above made a very good point. People are moving away from sedans. The new trend is crossovers and SUV's of all shapes & sizes (at least in the US.) It will be interesting to see how well the new Corolla sells. May have better sales in Europe & Asia.

 

A few key sedans will survive the test of time. Corolla is the world's most popular car ever. It seems reasonable that affordably priced with the battery-pack concealed entirely under the rear seat, it will continue to persist... allowing Toyota to phase out the traditional model and other sedans.

Keep in mind how tiny the SUV choices are becoming. I parked next to a Mazda CX-3 the other day. It was shocking to see how similar in size it was to Prime. It had more headroom, but Prime had a longer storage area.

The point is change isn't abrupt and it favors practical. We're seeing the mighty SUV shrink to more efficiency sizes. Plug-In choices won't be for everyone. In fact, we could be seeing an ethanol-based based hybrid someday.

 

the prius was designed as a hybrid not an phev. Its fairly obvious if you look at the design. Sorry, I've designed things, and no, toyota did it because it thought batteries were too expensive, they are not now.

as the millenials say, yeah no. No I didn't really know about the prius until around 2006, you know 12 years ago. Battery constraints, tesla roadster was designed around then. Not really a constraint. Sure no need to design until 2007 or so, with a 5 year cycle that puts us in 2012 a full cycle ago. Toyota did talk about a full phev in that time, but decided against it.

I'd say toyota is a full design cycle away today. Its too bad. They had a big lead in 2007. I bought my gen 3 prius in 2009. My girlfriend is driving it now, and I have a tesla model 3. If you are looking at volume and say prius instead of plug-in, the model 3 all by itself is greatly outselling all of the toyota hybrids in september and october in units in north america, the disparity gets much bigger if you consider dollar sales..