- This design study may preview a next-generation fully electric Toyota Corolla sedan.
- The concept will be unveiled later this month in Japan, hopefully with some explanations regarding its future.
- Toyota already sells a small electric sedan in China, the bZ3, and this Corolla EV could be its global equivalent.
One of the concepts that Toyota plans to unveil at the Japan Mobility Show this year is a futuristic (and likely fully electric) interpretation of a Corolla sedan. The car seems to advance the design language that we’ve already seen on Toyota’s production models, but it's more angular and futuristic. It’s definitely a Corolla because it says so on the back.
Had it not had ‘Corolla’ lettering on its trunklid, you wouldn’t know what it’s meant to be because it looks nothing like today’s model. It has a fully closed grille in the front, which is slanted and clearly designed with aerodynamic efficiency in mind.
There’s a full-width light bar connecting the front light clusters and a small opening in the lower part of the bumper. This is typically associated with fully electric vehicles, which don’t need to breathe through a large grille like combustion cars do, although they still need some air to go through the front to cool some of the components.
There’s also another vent around the lower edge of the windshield. This could be connected to the bumper intake and help channel air over the car to help it cut through the air more efficiently. Think of it like a large and more hidden interpretation of the front blade design that you see in cars like the Polestar 3 or the Dodge Charger EV.
While Toyota may brand this car a concept, there are several signs that it’s more than that. The greenhouse looks large enough to accommodate actual people and doesn’t have the chop-top look that some sedans have in concept form, but then lose for production in the quest for interior headroom. It also has side mirrors, normal-looking door handles and a charging port on the front left fender.
The light clusters also don’t look too far-fetched for production, so my best guess is this is a close-to-production study. But we don’t know why Toyota is showing this plug-in Corolla and what its plans are for such a model. It already offers a similarly-sized electric sedan in China, the bZ3, but that was designed specifically for the Chinese market and it’s not sold elsewhere.
The front section is also very short and it looks like the passenger compartment takes up more of the wheelbase than in the current Corolla. These proportions are typical of dedicated electric vehicles, which don’t need room for a combustion engine under the hood, so it strongly suggests this concept is fully electric.
This electric Corolla could be Toyota’s three-box compact EV for the rest of the world, where it would challenge the Tesla Model 3 and the Polestar 2. Toyota should reveal more about this mysterious new Corolla when the Japan Mobility Show opens its doors on October 29.
