New Toyota Corolla sedan revealed

The covers have officially come off the new-generation Toyota Corolla sedan more than 12 months before it arrives in Australia.

Revealed today at Auto Guangzhou in China, the sedan will be offered here with an orthodox 2.0-litre petrol engine and is also expected to be available as a petrol-electric hybrid.

Despite the Aussie addiction to SUVs and pick-ups, Toyota Australia is convinced the Corolla sedan is worth continuing with.

“There is still a sedan market in Australia,” Toyota Australia marketing and sales chief Sean Hanley told carsales.com.au.

“This whole idea that it’s dropping to the point where you no longer bring sedans in is not going to happen.

“It may change, it may go sportier, it may go more performance-oriented, but I still think there is a sedan market that’s healthy and vibrant in Australia and we are most pleased to be bringing this really significantly changed Corolla sedan to market.”

Ahead of today’s Chinese event, carsales.com.au got a sneak-peek at the new Corolla during the new RAV4 medium SUV media launch in California earlier this month.

Two versions of the four-door were shown off; a sports model badged XSE and the prestige XLE. They were obviously distinguishable from each other by different and dramatic lower-front grille openings and alloy wheel designs.

Like the new Corolla hatch launched in Australia in August, the sedan is a dramatic leap for Toyota in terms of progressive exterior and interior design.

Exterior features include a lower beltline, slimmer A-pillars and repositioned side mirrors – which look like they were only shifted lower late in the process.

Inside, the most obvious change is the move to a new tablet-style touch-screen atop the dashboard, rather than a screen embedded in the centre stack.

There’s also a slimmer instrument panel and the driver’s hip point has been moved lower and more rearward.

Intriguingly, Toyota makes no claims about interior and luggage space. This is a sore point with the new Corolla hatch, which manages to reduce both rear-seat legroom and boot capacity despite a longer wheelbase than its predecessor.

This far ahead of the local launch Toyota Australia is keeping information about the model range, equipment and pricing to itself.

Apart from the 125kW/200Nm 2.0-litre engine, it is prepared to confirm the availability of the rev-matching six-speed manual gearbox and 10-speed CVT with mechanical launch gear also already seen here in the Corolla hatch.

It’s also predicting improved fuel consumption compared to the existing 103kW/173NM 1.8-litre engine, but without issuing figures.

The current Corolla sedan claims 6.8L/100km as a six-speed manual and 6.4L/100km as a CVT. These figures are significantly undercut by the new generation hatch, led by the hybrid version with a 4.2L/100km average.

The full Toyota Safety Sense package will also be offered with the Corolla sedan, including autonomous emergency braking, a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection, all-speed radar cruise control, lane-departure alert with steering assist, automatic high beam and speed sign recognition.

Seven airbags and a reversing camera will also be part of the package. Road-sign assist, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert will also be available.

Based on the TNGA-C version of the Toyota New Global Architecture, which is for small cars and SUVs, the Corolla sedan retains the 2700mm wheelbase of its predecessor, has a 20mmm height reduction, a 35mm lower bonnet and wider tracks.

TNGA-C delivers the sedan a claimed 60 per cent increase in torsional rigidity and a lower centre of gravity, while a new multi-link suspension is also fitted.

Toyota promises all this leads to better driving dynamics. The Corolla hatch shares these improvements and has already been praised for its improved steering, handling and ride.