We knew it was coming, but now it has been formally confirmed. The Toyota Corolla Altis and Platinum Etios have been axed from the model portfolio of the Japanese giant in India.
The Toyota Corolla has been a winner for the brand from day one, earning its reputation as a comfortable, reliable and efficient performer not just here in India but the world over. The Etios was a made-for-India solution and represented the entry into the brand, together with its Liva hatchback iteration. While they were reliable performers that rewarded with frugal fuel economy figures as well, the response wasn’t as great as the company had hoped. Thus, there will be no BS6 Etios models, meaning the Yaris now the entry model for Toyota in India.
Toyota Platinum Etios
The Toyota Corolla has no such fate planned. We believe the hybrid version will be introduced as a replacement and that more than meets the new emission norms. That’s right – the all-new Toyota Corolla looks set to arrive in India later in 2020 with a hybrid powertrain.
Toyota Corolla Hybrid
For over 50 years, the Toyota Corolla has been among the bestselling cars worldwide. Launched in 1966 in Japan, it was soon exported to Australia barely a month later. The Corolla earned the bestseller crown for the first time in 1974. It was since manufactured in 15 countries and sold in over 150 countries, racking up nearly 48 million sales. It was available in hatchback, saloon and estate guises depending on the market. In 1997, it overtook the legendary Volkswagen Beetle in sales figures worldwide. In India, the Toyota Corolla’s story began with the ninth-generation model. The Altis facelift model brought in even edgier styling and it went on to be a bestseller here as well.
It’s been a few generations now and, after always having a staple petrol engine in India since it first arrived — with the 1.8-litre in-line four, petrol engine being the constant, the 1.4-litre turbo-diesel soon came in. Now, though, there is another major change at hand.
The new Toyota Corolla looks set to have a hybrid-only driveline. The new Corolla Hybrid, already on sale in a few global markets, is built on the latest TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture) platform and features the latest generation self-charging hybrid electric powertrain as well as Toyota Safety Sense. An updated cabin, centre display and more modern connectivity solutions are included as well. It gets the same driveline as the latest Prius. That means the smart 2ZR-FXE 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with 98 hp and 142 Nm and a 53-kW electric motor capable of 72 hp and 163 Nm, powered by a compact nickel-metal hydride battery pack. Combined, they deliver a peak system output of 122 hp and over 200 Nm of torque. Managing power transmission duties is an electronically-controlled continuously variable transmission, or ECVT, driving the front wheels. The Corolla Hybrid promises upwards of 22.5 km/l.
What we’d really like to see, though, is the plug-in hybrid version. It still has a peak 122 hp but features a dual-motor driveline and packs a larger 8.8-kWh battery pack. That allows an all-electric range of up to 55 km, with a higher pure-electric output of 68 kW (92 hp), and an outstanding fuel efficiency figure of as high as 76.9 km/l!
