2021 Toyota Corolla Hybrid — The un-Prius for those who don’t want a Prius

By Jim Prueter
MotorwayAmerica.com

(October 5, 2020) Over the years, more than 46 million Toyota Corollas have been sold to satisfied buyers, making it the best-selling nameplate in the world. It has proven reputation for value, reliability, efficiency, resale value and affordability. Add the fact that there’s no shortage of excellent competitor vehicles in its class — including the venerable Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Volkswagen Golf, Mazda3 and others — and Corolla more than holds its own as a favorite choice among new and used car buyers.


Now in its 12th generation after a thorough redo last year, the new Corolla is a drastic improvement over its predecessor, but not enough to be the class leader among the aforementioned competitors.

Still, the new Corolla will more than satisfy its decades of loyal buyers and others who rely on Toyota’s outstanding reputation for down-to-earth honest automotive transportation that’s pleasant to drive, doesn’t break, and is an overall sensible choice.

The new Corolla introduced a new bumper-to-bumper look and is built on entirely new underpinnings — Toyota’s New Global Architecture (TNGA) — and has vast improvements over the previous generation Corolla. While new for Corolla, the TNGA is used on other Toyota vehicles such as the Prius.

Last year, for the first time ever, Toyota added a hybrid model to the Corolla portfolio of offerings, replacing the discontinued Prius C. We recently spent a week with a new 2021 Corolla hybrid that’s basically unchanged from last year, except for the addition of standard Android Auto smartphone connectivity and an overall price increase of $495, raising it to $24,355.

The new hybrid system combines a 1.8-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine with two motor/generators through an electronically controlled planetary-type continuously variable transmission (CVT) transaxle. That combines for a total of 121 horsepower that yields decidedly responsive performance. The Corolla is front-wheel-drive only and the engine is paired with a CVT. Additionally, its only available in the LE grade as a four-door sedan. Corolla gets a combined 52 miles per gallon. That’s nearly 20 mpg more than the already gas sipping non-hybrid Corollas.



While the exceptional gas mileage is impressive, all that goodness comes at a $3,000 price premium. That amount of money would buy 1,333 gallons of regular gas at an average price of $2.25 a gallon. And with EPA of 33-mpg on the gasoline-only powered Corolla you would have to drive some 44,000 miles on the hybrid just to break even. You’ll have to decide if the hybrid is worth the extra cost.

Appearance wise, the overall look of the Corolla hybrid doesn’t change much from the non-hybrid Corolla; the look is basically identical. There’s some blue accenting on the Toyota logo affixed at the front of the hybrid. Behind the grille, the hybrid gets active air shutters to improve fuel efficiency. There’s a chrome “Hybrid” emblem on either front fenders for identification.

Out back, the hybrid again has the same basic look as the non-hybrid Corolla, adding the blue trim on the Toyota logo and hybrid lettering on the right side of the trunk lid. The trunk is large, thanks to the hybrid’s battery pack location beneath the rear seat instead of in the trunk. Instead of a spare tire, a tire inflator kit is standard on the hybrid.

Inside, cabin room is about average for vehicles this size and price range. The front seats are manually adjustable. It’s worth noting that the new Honda Insight, which is basically a Honda Civic hybrid, is the most direct competitor for the Corolla hybrid and is a more premium vehicle with more upgrades and more options. The Insight is available in more trim levels and the Corolla hybrid is LE trim level only.  

The hybrid LE trim is the same as the gasoline-powered Corolla LE, including fabric-only seating materials in all black or two-tone gray. The seats are mostly comfortable, although rear seat and headroom are sparse and best left for smaller adults or children.

An eight-inch color touch screen located on the center dash operates the infotainment system, and includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration.

The cabin ambience has an overall low-rent feeling, with acres of hard plastic trim about the door panels, dashboard, and center console. There’s a bit of glossy piano black trim on the center console and instrument panel, but it didn’t dress the interior up much. We found most operating controls were intuitive and easy to use.

Buyers interested in upgrading their LE hybrid with more options like a sunroof, leather seating, or other niceties are out of luck; the only option offered is blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert ($500). There are a number of accessories available, like floor mats, a cargo tray, door edge guards and others mostly installed by the selling dealership.

The Corolla hybrid does include Toyota’s Safety Sense 2.0 system of advanced safety and driver assist features. It includes forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, and a lane centering feature.

On the road, we found the hybrid to be one of the slowest vehicles we’ve driven, taking more than 11 seconds to reach 60 mph from a standing start. Correspondingly, engine noise was amplified with heavy acceleration. We thought the CVT worked well with the hybrid system, but contributed to the noisy engine drone under heavier acceleration.

We found handling to be predictable and acceptable with a minimum amount of body roll on curves and corners; agile handling; short turning ratio; and it absorbed bumps, potholes and pavement imperfections effectively. The brake pedal was touchy and took some use to smooth things out, but the cabin was on the noisy side at highway speeds.

Overall, if stellar fuel economy is high on your checklist but you’re not fond of the looks of funky styled Prius, the Corolla hybrid could be your best choice.

Vital Stats
Base Price: $24,355
Price as Tested: $25,474
Engine/Transmission: 1.8-liter inline 4-cylinder, two electric motors for a combined 121 horsepower and paired with a continuously variable automatic transmission.
Fuel Economy: 53/52/52 mpg – City/Highway/Combined
Seating: 5

Where Built: Aichi, Japan

Crash Test Results: 2020 Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and highest possible 5-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Competes With:
Honda Insight
Hyundai Ioniq
Kia Niro
Toyota Prius

Fab Features:
Excellent fuel economy
Standard Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 features
Traditional Toyota predicted reliability and resale ratings