All Toyota Corollas to be hybrid from 2020

Toyota Corolla Hybrid Saloon

Just 16 months after announcing the cessation of diesel passenger car production, Toyota Ireland has made another significant move towards a cleaner and more sustainable motoring future by announcing the end of its Corolla and C-HR petrol models from 2020, writes Trish Whelan.

The Irish company says ‘unprecedented demand for self-charging hybrid version of the world’s best-selling car eliminates the need for a petrol option’. This decision also sees C-HR switch to hybrid only as the 1.2L petrol engine has been dropped. 

Steve Tormey, Toyota Ireland CEO, commented: “As evidenced by the massive swing in preference towards self-charging hybrid over pure petrol-powered cars that we have seen with Corolla, I am confident that if all other motoring manufacturers offered a full range of hybrids, Ireland’s environmental outlook would immediately be a lot rosier than it currently looks.”

He added: “Our self-charging hybrids, which are exclusively automatic, have many advantages including excellent fuel efficiency, low NOX and drive in zero emissions mode more than 60pc of the time, making them the ideal next step towards electrification for environmentally and cost-conscious drivers.”

These changes follow on from the success already seen from the RAV4 and Camry, exclusively available in hybrid since launching in early 2019.

To date, over 85 per cent of Corolla sales, and 90 per cent of C-HR sales this year have been for the self-charging hybrid models. The change in 2020 will see the removal of the 1.6 petrol variant from the Corolla Saloon line up and the 1.2 petrol from the Corolla Hatchback line up, as well as the retirement of the 1.2 petrol C-HR. From 2020, the only petrol variants to remain in the Toyota line-up will be the efficient Yaris 1.0 petrol and the Aygo.

Available in hatchback, saloon and touring sport variants, prices for Corolla hybrid start from €26,370. 

Next year, Toyota Ireland predicts that 92 per cent of its passenger car sales will be self-charging hybrid across all models.

Toyota Corolla Hybrid Hatchback