Speculation Runs High About Toyota Corolla EV Ahead Of Japanese Mobility Show – CleanTechnica

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Way back when, people used to go to auto shows. Remember when the Detroit Auto Show was a must for any self-respecting car company? If you don’t, we’re not surprised. It was eclipsed by the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas about the time the Tesla Model S first rolled off the assembly line in Fremont. Today, the furthest anyone travels to the Detroit Auto Show is from Grand Rapids.

If you are in the business of selling cars to people in Japan these days, however, the Japanese Mobility Show in Tokyo is a must. When the show opens on October 29 this year, Toyota is expected to present a concept Corolla EV, according to various news reports. Car models typically have a 7-year production life. The current Corolla debuted in 2020, which means in the normal scheme of things, the next-generation Corolla should be due in 2027.

In a short video, Toyota offered hints about what it will be bringing to the Mobility Show this year, including some Lexus models. But included in that video are images of what people purport to be an electric Corolla. You have to look sharp, because it goes by quickly, but look for the small charging port door on the left front fender.

Car and Driver says, “The Corolla concept’s look is futuristic and dynamic, centered around a light bar that stretches across the front end and sits beneath sharp LED eyebrows, with the main headlight units situated vertically, framing the sedan’s face. The side view mirrors are mounted on a black band that sits on the leading edge of the front doors, while a divot is carved out of the side doors to add some visual pizzazz.”

Truthfully, Toyota has released no details about the car. The charging door could indicate it is a plug-in hybrid like the Toyota Prius Prime, or it could be fully battery electric. The Corolla has been the volume leader for Toyota for decades, so it seems likely the company will not suddenly shift to a battery electric car and risk alienating millions of satisfied customers. But it very well might make the new Corolla available in three different trims — hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric.

The concept car is handsome in a modern way and reminds of us of the current Prius, which turned into a swan after Akio Toyoda personally intervened to make the prior iteration of the Prius an ugly duckling. Scions of famous captains of industry should never be allowed anywhere near a design studio. To our eye, the concept bears a family resemblance to the current Prius, and that’s a good thing.

Credit: Toyota

While Toyota may say this is a concept car, InsideEVs thinks it is very close to being production ready. “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.”

Toyota already offers an electric sedan in China known as the bZ3 that was designed specifically for the Chinese market and is not sold in other countries. As of this moment, there is no word on where a battery electric Corolla might be sold. Although, the US, with its shifting tariffs and antipathy to clean transportation, is probably not in line to get the car. However, if Chevrolet, Hyundai, and Kia continue having success with their EVs despite those hurdles, Toyota could decide to bring the car to the US anyway.

Toyota executives in the US say they expect slow but steady growth in EV sales in the US, which is actually kind of hopeful. “We’ll sell a little bit more every year and grow with the market,” Cooper Ericksen, a senior vice president in charge of planning and strategy at Toyota Motor North America, said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“But we have to think about how many Canada will use, how many the US will use, and we can then export to other global destinations.” While EV sales may not be growing as fast in the US as proponents might like, Toyota seems comfortable with the idea that any cars it manufacturers in the US that go unsold will find buyers elsewhere.

A likely guess for America is a hybrid and plug-in hybrid version of the new Corolla, although whether that would steal sales from the Prius is probably a question Toyota strategists are wrestling with at this very moment. People say Americans won’t buy sedans, but Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Kia disprove that theory every day.

Stay tuned for more on the next-generation Toyota Corolla on October 30 when the Japanese Mobility Show debuts.