- Toyota used this week’s Japan Mobility Show to reveal a wildly reimagined Corolla — just a concept car for now
- It could function as a hybrid or a fully electric car
There’s an aggressively styled, sporty little car with a wildly futuristic cabin making its first public appearance this week. Its name will surprise you. The next Toyota Corolla could be one of the most striking, futuristic cars on the road.
Yes, it’s like we just told you white bread will be spicy and delicious soon. Smooth jazz will feature blistering drum solos. Your next meeting will include spa treatments. It’s weird. But it does seem to be happening.
The auto industry has gathered in Tokyo this week for the Japan Mobility Show. Toyota used the event to reveal a concept car previewing the next generation of history’s best-selling car.
It’s officially a concept car. The auto industry uses that term for a design study meant to suggest future design directions.
Concept cars fall broadly into two buckets. Those with a name like “Halcyon concept” are usually not meant for production. They can be wildly futuristic because they’ll never be mass-produced in a factory.
But when an automaker uses the name of a real production car on a concept, it often means the thing will reach production someday. They often tone down wilder, harder-to-manufacture features. But a concept car with a production car’s name on it is often a preview.
The name “Toyota Corolla Concept” is a pretty unambiguous symbol.
Svelte, Angular, and Sporty
- The Corolla Concept looks like nothing on the road today — the most aggressive interpretation of Toyota’s angular new face
Park the Corolla Concept next to the current Camry or Prius, and you’d see the resemblance immediately. It shares their wide, lighted smile and their slash-like daytime running lights.
But you’d think the Corolla might be a Toyota from a science fiction movie. An almost skeletal greenhouse with a sharply raked windshield rises from a beltline of sharp angles. The front windows plunge under the wing mirrors, echoed by a diagonal cutline in the rear doors. At the rear, it pinches together with an integrated spoiler above a wide line of lights.
Inside, the changes are just as radical. The driver faces a screen built directly onto the steering column. The front passenger has their own screen. There is no central touchscreen. In its place, a sort of table rises, with a crystal shifter shaped like the car.
The passenger seat headrest is wide and cradling, with built-in speakers. The driver’s headrest is a tall pillar, showing that one seat is meant for relaxing and the other for piloting. Recessed ambient lighting, those plunging front windows, and a pass-through floor with no transmission tunnel give it an airy feel.
EV, Hybrid Options with a New Generation of Engine
- Executives say it could be sold with hybrid or electric power, or even exotic fuels
- A new generation of smaller engine helps achieve the shape
The lack of a transmission tunnel is a dead giveaway that Toyota is planning an electric version. But executives say they could build the car with a choice of powertrains.
Industry publication Automotive News explains, “the venerable small car is being prepped for both fully electric and hybrid options, as well as standard gasoline and perhaps even alternative fuels” like hydrogen in some markets.
Hybrid versions would likely require a transmission tunnel. But building in a gasoline engine might not require a revamp of the tiny hood.
A new generation of gasoline engines, executives say, could be up to 20% smaller than today’s.
“Because the new engines are designed to work with electric motors in a hybrid system, engineers could afford to reduce the torque of the engine and let the electric motor compensate,” AN explains.
Toyota hasn’t said when the next-generation Corolla will launch. The 12th-generation model on dealer lots today first appeared for the 2020 model year. We expect the 13th-generation model may have a 2027 or 2028 debut.
