If Toyota offered a hybrid Corolla..............

[journeyforce]

So I am curious
If Toyota offered a Corolla hybrid would the market share and demand for the Prius dry up? it seems American and Canadian car buying public seem to shun the hatchback. All the things I have read about the Prius talk about MPG, style and driving traits. Nobody devotes a lot of paragraphage(is this a word?) to the qualities of the hatch.

So this begs me to ask the question if the Corolla was offered with a hybrid engine would that kill the Prius? it seems that people are buying the Prius for the Hybrid part and since there is no Toyota sedan hybrid offering in a small car(the Camry Hybrid is another thing) the Prius is bought.

But Americans are crazy about the Corolla and around 300,000-400,000 of them are sold yearly(so many that they have to import Japan made ones to sell along side the American made ones because they can't keep them on the lot) It is safe to say that it is one of the USA's favorite selling small car(that people buy because they want to and not because it is cheap to buy) so I would think selling a hybrid version of it would spell doom for the Prius.

What do you folks think? Would the Prius be doomed if a Corolla hybrid came out? Or would the "show off about being green" look of the Prius cause sales to be steady?

Personally I am not impressed with or see the point of a hybrid small car. Most small cars made now get good enough mpgs on a regular engine. I had a Honda CRX that got 40 mpg and in recent tests of hybrid cars they always add a Geo/Chevy Metro XFI to the mix and that car got 50 mpg in the 1990's

I would be very impressed to see a 40mpg SUV or full size car

So what say you Genvibers?

[KITT222]

Toyota knows the power of the Corolla. That's why they have kept it obsolete, and why the ten year old Corolla is just as good as the new one. 35mpg hwy and 4-spd auto have been their staple, and my step-mom's 05 is nearly identical to the current one, styling aside. If Toyota were to boost it to competitive fuel economy (~40mpg) it would eat into Prius sales.

So yes, Corolla Hybrid would totally cannibalize the Prius.

[jake75]

Yes but - a 40+ pg Corolla would also smoke the competition. I really don't know what Toyota's game plan might be. Even more elusive is the game plan to achieve the 50+ mpg fuel economy requirements of the near future. But National Geographic says we'll run out of oil by 2058 anyway. I'll b be dead long before then.

[KITT222]

But National Geographic says we'll run out of oil by 2058 anyway. I'll b be dead long before then.

Compressed natural gas. You can convert petrol cars to it. I'm confident that it will be the next big gas. Just like petroleum was, it is currently dirt cheap, but it also pollutes 90% less.


ANYWAY.... Toyota loses money with each Prius (or so I've heard) but it's worth it for the whole "Almighty and all-knowing Toyota and their vast knowledge of reliability, quality, and fuel mileage!!! All hail Toyota!!" when in reality the American competition should have had them on their heals for some time, judging from numbers. Even Cobalt was rather competitive.

[ColonelPanic]

Compressed natural gas. You can convert petrol cars to it. I'm confident that it will be the next big gas. Just like petroleum was, it is currently dirt cheap, but it also pollutes 90% less.

Might be clean from an emissions standpoint, but the methods they're using now to obtain said natural gas are environmentally disastrous. Injecting toxic chemicals into the ground at an extreme force is hardly clean. Contaminated air, ground water, and even causing earthquakes in places that have not experienced seismic activity in the past... Bad stuff.

Anyway back to the subject of the Corolla... Toyota could make it more fuel efficient even without resorting to hybrid trickery, but that would mean they would have to stop digging into their massive stockpile of four speed automatics that the've been collecting since 1990. They don't want to, they'll just keep reheating the same dish and people will continue to buy them based on the fact that it's a Corolla (which I personally don't find to be a valid reason to buy one considering the more compelling alternatives available from competition, both domestic and foreign, but to each his/her own.)

[10vibe]

Funny the comment about the four speed transmission. I feel the same.
Toyota's near term plans for engines and transmissions could get interesting. Seems like they are focused on direct injection and smaller displacement turbos. They have developed a CVT transmission for several models, such as the Prius and Camry hybrid in America. Corolla's and similar small cars in the Asian market already have the CVT as an option. I can find no info on automated manual dual clutch transmission development other than what they tried a few years ago. I have searched through their main supplier and find no relevant info. I cannot find anything on a new small displacement traditional automatic transmission either.