2026 Toyota Corolla sedan rendered
Next-gen small car mocked up with premium Crown Sport DNAThe 2026 Toyota Corolla has been digitally imagined ahead of its global debut next year, unofficially taking inspiration from the JDM Crown Sport crossover.
Rendered by popular digital creator Theottle, the 13th-gen Corolla will seemingly build on the current iteration’s aggressive look with a much squarer motif as per the bigger Camry, however we can’t help but see the parallels between it and the previous Kia Cerato.
The Corolla has famously been offered as both a five-door hatch and four-door sedan for generations now and that recipe is set to continue seeing as a two-pronged portfolio is now the norm in the admittedly shrinking small car market.
Reports out of Japan last year suggested the next-gen Toyota small car would don a slipperier design then the current model to maximise the range and efficiency of the electrified versions, particularly the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) variants which are rumoured to be good for up to 2100km on a full fuel load.
The astonishing claim will reportedly be the result of a new-generation 1.5-litre combustion engine, solid-state batteries and advanced electric motor technology; however the PHEVs aren’t expected to come to market until 2028 at the earliest.
Toyota previously announced it would roll out its solid-state EV battery technology in 2027 and that it would be reserved for flagship models like the Crown EV, leaving mass-market models with less advanced bi-polar lithium-iron phosphate batteries.
Whether or not the Corolla PHEV will be eligible for the solid-state tech or not remains to be seen, but at the very least it will come with bi-polar lithium-iron phosphate batteries said to offer a 20 per cent increase in cruising range compared to its current lithium-ion battery tech, while being cheaper to produce and faster to recharge.
The rest of the range – in Australia at least – will undoubtedly continue the current hybrid-only approach, albeit with next-gen combustion engines and battery tech (on a smaller scale).
Related: 2026 Toyota Corolla PHEV may offer 2100km fuel range
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