What’s the best-selling car ever? If you define it by a single generation, it’s the Volkswagen Beetle, but if you define it by a nameplate, it’s the Toyota Corolla. We’re talking more than 50 million sold on every corner of this Earth, to people from all walks of life. Teachers, soldiers, criminals, the lot. It really is the default answer when much of the world wants to buy a car, and at this year’s Japan Mobility Show, Toyota gave us a glimpse at where the Corolla is going.
On first glance, there’s a whiff of post-recession to the appearance of this concept car, from the plunging beltline to the chamfered surfacing on the lower doors. Tropes we’ve seen before many moons ago, all but forgotten about, and are now almost reminiscing over. As a result, the Corolla concept isn’t exactly elegant from all angles, but the Corolla Furia Concept of 2013 taught us that proportions and surfacing can change for the better from concept to production.
Truthfully, I’m quite hoping it’s a five-door liftback for a couple of reasons. I mean, the silhouette certainly suggests it, and a liftback would be a practicality boost over a standard sedan, but I can’t imagine trying to stuff anything large in the back if we’re looking at a mail-slot trunk lid. At the same time, I do like the enormous Lucid Air-like windshield. More glass means more susceptibility to rock chips, sure, but also a greater connectedness to the world around you.
Speaking of changes, don’t expect the future Corolla’s interior to look like this. Console like a podium, huge pods coming off the gauge cluster, touchscreen way over on the passenger side? Come on. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a flat floor in the next Corolla, and while everything in here is exaggerated, you can get a sense of what might be going on if you squint a bit. The one thing I hope survives the trip from concept to production? A tiny Corolla-shaped shifter. How whimsical.
As for motive power, there is something on the Corolla concept that makes me curious: the absolute shedload of either fuel filler doors, charging port doors, or both. We’re talking one in each front fender plus one in the left rear quarter-panel. According to Toyota, “Technological innovation enables the flexibility for Corolla Concept to be a battery-electric vehicle (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), hybrid (HEV), or internal combustion engine vehicle,” and although this concept probably doesn’t try to roll all of these things into one demonstrator, the next Corolla should be as green as you want it to be.
With the production-spec Corolla as we know it knocking on the door of eight years old, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a new one relatively soon-ish. While the Corolla Concept might look far-out, strip away some of the concept car fripperies, and we might actually be looking at Toyota’s next-generation compact. Consider this a new headlight pattern to recognize when your Uber rolls up in the dark.
Top graphic image: Toyota
Looking at that windshield, I’m curious what the wiper situation is going to be like.
Looks better than the Lexus angry grill used in more recent makes.
Concept =/= production
I have little hope for the production model to look anywhere near as cool as this. Especially for such a car that is sold in soooo many markets, many of them 3rd world countries where they don’t give a shit about styling and want something dependable, easy to work on and repair with an interior that will take a ton of wear.
Still, it does seem that Toyota has a renewed interest in design, so it might be a looker for it’s segment, similar to how the new Prius wowed everyone. I just hope the interior of the Corolla looks better since I absolutely hate the Prius interior.
The front end is very polestar looking. I actually do not mind the looks of this the back end is a little weird looking though.
I expected this would get a lot of hate in the comments, but pleasantly surprised to see a mix of reactions. I like the exterior. The interior looks wildly impractical and will definitely not make it to production, but it’s a concept so that’s fine.
I think it’s cool looking, though the first thought I had when I saw the side picture was “this looks like something Kia would make.”
That’s not an unflattering comparison to make in 2025 though.
That front end doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of meeting European pedestrian safety regulation.
the new corolla hatch is the best the corolla has looked in some 40yrs and the new prius design language they’ve been introducing I really like on their cars. So I’m optimistic that their take for the corolla is gonna look good too.
Where did Toyota or Chevy get the notion that people like to have a mismatched black roof? They really need to stop this black roof idiocy. Same with the black mirror idiocy. Are you seriously upcharging me for generic black mirrors over body colored mirrors?
The cyber corolla
Geez! How much more is this thing going to cost me when it hits the road?!
Obviously, this is a concept, so you need to look past the concept stuff to see where Toyota is headed, but overall, I really like this. Moving the Corolla slightly up to compete with the Civic seems like the right move. Fastbacks are cool, and the large greenhouse looks like visibility would be great. I’m more than intrigued.
What I see is mostly a riff on the current Prius, which I consider a very attractive car. And at this point, merging Corolla and Prius into a single model would make a lot of sense. Currently, the most expensive Corolla Hybrid approaches the price of a base Prius. Make them the same car, and call the basic models “Corolla” and the fancy, technologically-loaded version becomes the “Corolla Prius”.
They should do a body targeting a drag coefficient of around 0.15. With their most basic 4-cylinder engine, you’d beat the current Prius’ highway fuel economy. Then give the Prius the same treatment so that it gets close to 80 mpg highway. This could then segue into pure electric options are are economical to operate from having a smaller battery.
It’s a basic sedan. It doesn’t need to look brutish. It just needs to function like a sedan, and save the operator money and time vs the competition’s offerings. Reliability and economy, as well as vehicle longevity, at a low cost, should be the focus. Not so much aesthetics.
Agreed!
I’m not so sure all that many Corolla buyers are shopping appearance.
Love the powertrain agnostic approach so buyers can spec it based on their own wants/needs.
Nope. Another nail in the coffin of my desire to buy any more new cars. We seem to be getting ALL the aspects of the various dystopian movies of old.
You know what connects you to the outside world in a car? A relatively upright slim-pillared windshield that doesn’t have 3′ of dash between you and the base of it. See classic Saab 900 and myriad other 70s and 80s cars for how to do it correctly. This nonsense is the province of cool but incredibly annoying to deal with day-to-day exotica. Toyota needs to send their entire design department to the Betty Ford Clinic for a detox.
As a 90s kid, idk why blacked out canopy aesthetic ever went away. This car looks pretty great.
Maybe we are going back to the days where concept cars were this, concepts, that would at most hint on how the future cars would look like, instead of the “almost ready to enter production” concepts of today. I mean, this is too much for Corolla, which has always adopted a “conservative” design.
I don’t dislike it, honestly. It does not look excelent from all angles, but there are more wins then losses, imho.
I have never been a fan of just going by the nameplate for car sales numbers There is little similarity between a 2025 Corolla and a 1st or 2nd generation Corolla.
I don’t hate it. As much as I prefer older car design (80s-early 00s), I don’t mind the “cyberpunk” aesthetic more automakers are leaning into. Heckblende tail lights, angular design that isn’t *too busy*, etc. I would like to see a more practical interior however, and move the beltline down a bit. Rear visibility is probably crap too, why not make the whole back hatch glass instead of that little letterbox?
I think they might want to dial it back a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if the average Corolla buyer isn’t quite that adventurous in terms of styling tastes.
They need a little less 5th Element on the interior. It feels like Chris Tucker is gonna scream at me when I power it up.
The exterior is dope as hell, though.
I would pay extra for Ruby Rhod to be the voice for my nav system (as long as I can mute it when I want).
I’d be okay if there were a color called “Super Green” though.
It doesn’t look that great from all angles, as the article says, for me it’s the profile. However, the exterior looks pretty good. Plus, I feel any boldness or weirdness is great. I hope we are getting out of the amorphous blob stage like the Mercedes EQ’s
I quite like the exterior, Not a fan of the interior though. Doesn’t look like many places to put things.
with the absolute domination of cross-overs, toyota can take a risk on the corolla.
I think the idea may be to follow in the footsteps of the Prius and the Leaf, new look-wise.
Why must Toyota make the future so ugly?
Remember how good concept cars looked in the 80s?
When we’re young, concept cars look cool and futuristic. When we’re old, concept cars look disjointed, ugly, and just “too damned edgy”.
The cycle of life.
Am I out of touch? No, it’s the designers who are wrong.
The designers design what they are told to design. They’re not selling their designs to the car-buying public, they’re selling the designs to the board of directors. What the board of directors want, and what the consumers want, are almost always at odds. Most consumers are 2nd/3rd hand buyers, instead of 1st-hand buyers, as well. The 1st-hand buyers are the only group that receives any significant consideration.
Because Tesla is doing it, so is Honda, so is Ferrari, so is Lamborghini…
Monkey see, monkey do.
I’d rather the future be of benefit to people: make operating costs go down, reliability go up, and have it in a product that someone can work on with a very basic skillset and tools. This is one of the ways where capitalism can increase actual living standards for everyone.
But we’re generally moving away from all of that. The C-suite’s vision is nothing more than maximizing extraction of money, and that is what is determining design trends and also driving enshittification, especially when coupled with dependence upon fiat currencies that are rapidly losing value due to endless money printing.
The cars we get both reflect and exacerbate real-world economic trends. The corolla that actually gets sold to use will reflect that as well.
As long as the incentives of the system are to maximize profits, this will be the outcome.
In the USA, we’re very close to the end stage where no one has anything to extract except those doing the extraction. Consider how much of the new car market is fueled by debt. This is not a sustainable system, and cracks have definitely formed around the year 2008, that haven’t been fixed. The eventual failure will be catastrophic. Hopefully when the car market bubble collapses, I still have the money on hand and stable employment to pick up something I actually want, at a discount, but unfortunately most of my choices are already rare and in the hands of rich cash buyers that are sitting on them(eg. Alfa Romeo 4C).