Age-old nameplate is moving on from fully petrol era, in everyman form.

COROLLA is going fully hybrid on all but a specialist sports model in a range revision in which Toyota NZ is also making good on a promise from two years ago to add an elevated model with quasi off-road attitude and a 2.0-litre hybrid powertrain.

TNZ dropping conventional petrol-engined Corolla hatchback, sedan and wagon models fully in favour of equivalents with mild hybrid assistance is a change of local pace. The only exclusion to this strategy will be next year’s high performance GR Corolla. That’ll still be a purely petrol car.

The family broadens, before year-end - exact timing still under wraps - with the Corolla Cross (subject of the photos with this story). The Palmerston North-domiciled distributor promised back in 2020 this would be coming (see: https://www.motoringnz.com/news/2020/7/9/corolla-cross-out-in-2022 ) as an additional opportunity in the crucial small SUV sector.

Potential for the Corolla Cross (and GR) holding the fort for the nameplate might yet raise. TNZ is fast running out of pure petrol Corolla stock; it has about 100 here, almost all destined for rental fleets, and securing hybrid replacements seems set to be prolonged.

The covid-affected world experiencing border closures, assembly plant holdups, shipping delays and massive logistics issues means order a Corolla hybrid hatch now and the very earliest it’ll be here is early 2023. That’s for the entry GX. The higher-specified SX and ZR variants are not due until mid-2023.

General manager of sales Steve Prangnell says strong consumer preference for hybrid powertrains fuelled the decision to drop the fully petrol choice. Last month, 68 percent of 267 Corollas registered were hybrids.

“We are also committed to reducing the carbon emissions of our new vehicle product range and are on track to exceed the Government’s 2023 Clean Car Standard target for Toyota and Lexus.”

Corolla Cross will contest the compact SUV market segment that currently accounts for 20 percent of all passenger vehicle sales. The small car segment standard Corolla competes in accounts for four percent.

Full details on powertrain, specification and features will be provided closer to launch. Yet TNZ says whereas the standard Corollas will continue to be powered by a 1.8-litre petrol engine, the brand’s 2.0-litre M20A-FXS ‘Dynamic Force’ engine will be under the Corolla Cross’ bonnet, matched to a fifth-generation hybrid system. Total power output will be 135kW, and there will be three drive modes plus an EV mode.

Corolla Cross will be available with a choice of front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive. The AWD setup will be similar to that of the larger RAV4 hybrid, in that it will feature two electric motors for increased capability.

There is no indication of pricing for any of the new models. But the conventional petrol engine has always understandably held price advantage; although Toyota is far and away the world’s biggest producer of hybrids, the additional technology always shows in the cost. As Prangnell says buyers of electrified Toyotas always face a price premium to recover the costs of development and additional materials.

“However the Clean Car Rebate is helpful in reducing that premium.”