Ireland’s best-selling car Toyota Corolla

Unprecedented demand for self-charging hybrid version of world’s best-selling car eliminates need for petrol option

•    Toyota Ireland to remove 1.6 petrol saloon and 1.2 petrol hatchback from the lineup of Ireland’s No.1 bestselling car – the Toyota Corolla
•    Decision also sees C-HR switch to hybrid only as 1.2 petrol dropped

Just 16 months after disrupting the motoring industry and announcing the cessation of diesel car production, Toyota Ireland has today made another significant move towards a cleaner and more sustainable motoring future by announcing the end of its Corolla and C-HR petrol models from 2020. Toyota’s self-charging hybrid Corolla is Ireland’s best-selling car for 192 and the majority of new customers have favoured it over petrol, effectively removing the need for the petrol model.

Steve Tormey, Toyota Ireland CEO, commented;

“As evidenced by the massive swing in preference towards self-charging hybrid over pure petrol-powered cars that we have seen with Corolla, I am confident that if all other motoring manufacturers offered a full range of hybrids, Ireland’s environmental outlook would immediately be a lot rosier than it currently looks. Our self-charging hybrids, which are exclusively automatic, have many advantages including excellent fuel efficiency, low NOX and drive in zero emissions mode more than 60% of the time, making them the ideal next step towards electrification for environmentally and cost-conscious drivers.

“Some might say this is a brave move given the perceived market dependency on pure fossil fuel powered cars, but for us the decision to double down on self-charging hybrid over petrol makes absolute sense. The numbers don’t lie, and we now know that if you offer highly desirable looking and high-performing self-charging hybrids they will win out over petrol every time. Next year, we predict that 92% of our passenger car sales will be self-charging hybrid across all models.”

In early 2018, Toyota made the prescient call to swiftly move away from diesel models for passenger cars -- a decision that is very much reflective of Toyota Ireland’s ‘Built for a Better World’ brand promise. It’s proven to be the right decision as Toyota has grown its market share to 10.46% to date in 2019. Toyota’s self-charging hybrids produce less harmful emissions such as CO2 and up to 90% less NOX pollution in comparison to diesel engines.

In providing the widest line-up of stunning looking, high-performing, self-charging hybrids of any car brand, Toyota’s intention is to lead Irish drivers into electrification without the requirement to plug-in, which may not be feasible for many motorist’s lifestyles and driving habits.

These changes follow on from the success already seen from the RAV4 and Camry, which are exclusively available in hybrid since launching in early 2019. To date, over 85% of Toyota Corolla sales, and 90% of C-HR sales in 2019 have been for the self-charging hybrid models.

The change in 2020 will see the removal of the 1.6 petrol variant from the Corolla Saloon line up and the 1.2 petrol from the Corolla Hatchback line up, as well as the retirement of the 1.2 petrol C-HR.  From 2020, the only petrol variants to remain in the Toyota line-up will be the efficient Yaris 1.0 petrol and the Aygo.

Available in hatchback, saloon and touring sport variants, prices for Corolla hybrid start from €26,370.

For more information on the Toyota Corolla please visit www.toyota.ie