Toyota to build next-generation Corolla in China from 2028

Toyota's best-selling car is about to be rebuilt from the ground up. From 2028, the next-generation Corolla will roll off lines in China, and it will not be a single car but a family: a battery electric version, a hybrid, and a petrol model, all born on the same chassis.

The key piece is the 'multipathway' platform. In automotive terms, a platform is the shared base of a vehicle, the floor, the frame and the mounting points, onto which different engines or motors are fitted. Toyota already uses it for several models, including under its luxury Lexus brand. The new Corolla will be the first mainstream Toyota built on it, which means one architecture can carry electric, hybrid and combustion drivetrains without a separate design for each. Building it at the FAW Toyota Motor joint venture in China is expected to cut costs and speed up development and output.

The ambitions are visible in the details reported so far. The electric Corolla is expected to come in single- and dual-motor configurations with a range of at least 250 miles. The hybrid is said to pair a new 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine with an electric motor, delivering around 134 horsepower, and to be 10% to 20% more efficient than the current car. These are estimates from Car and Driver and from Toyota's engineers, not published test results. Toyota has not yet revealed battery or powertrain specifications, and it has not confirmed whether the electric version will reach the United States.

Why now? Toyota's position in China is under pressure. Its sales there fell 23%, the seventh consecutive month of decline, as demand for petrol and hybrid models weakened amid high fuel prices. Akio Toyoda, the company's current chairman and former CEO, told NHK in July that Toyota is being forced to adapt, or 'it cannot survive', against new competition and technology from China. Toyota is also restructuring its two Chinese joint ventures, FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota, to simplify operations and bring in more advanced technology.

So what changes for a buyer? If the plans hold, a driver shopping for a Corolla around 2028 could choose between electric, hybrid and petrol versions of the same car, at prices that press estimates place at about $25,000 for the petrol model, $27,000 for the hybrid and around $30,000 for the electric and plug-in versions. Those figures are not Toyota's. For the carmaker, the test is whether a shared platform can make a model that has lost some of its appeal look fresh again, and whether the China plant can deliver it at lower cost. Neither question has an answer yet, and the first hard numbers are still to come.