Toyota Yaris hybrid

What is it?

The Toyota Yaris Hybrid is a vital car, both for Toyota and the world. It proves full hybrids can be built in the supermini size (a world first), it is tipped to boost total Yaris sales by anything up to 20 per cent, and it shows, with a selection of simple body mods, that the dowdy small car Toyota launched halfway through last year can actually be quite good looking.

Oddly, given that we’re discussing their most economical hatchback yet, Toyota officials wouldn’t specify either the fuel consumption or CO2 output of their new Yaris Hybrid, when they allowed us to take a recent short drive in Japan. Official figures would come later, they said. They did allow, however, that when the car hit UK showrooms next June it would deliver Toyota’s “best ever CO2” which implies it can beat the current Prius III’s deeply impressive 72mpg-odd on the combined cycle. We can take the Yaris Hybrid’s extreme frugality as read.

What’s it like?

It’s better looking than the original Yaris, a dowdy-looking entrant in a stylish and sporty class. The Hybrid — with its new trapezoidal lower radiator intake, more ornate lights front and rear, better wheel designs and various other detail improvements — looks much more like the car they should have launched in the first place, and Toyota insiders privately admit as much.

However the real story is about Toyota’s cleverness in miniaturising its Prius hybrid powertrain to suit a supermini, with no compromises on cabin or boot space compared with conventional editions. To do it, engineers had taken a total of 40kg out of the powertrain, saved 50mm of engine length by using a 1.5 litre instead of a 1.8 litre engine, reduced battery weight and volume by 11kg and 20 percent respectively, and despite all this kept the Yaris Hybrid’s proposed price in touch with (if higher than) the regular petrol and diesel versions. These are important achievements.

So is the car’s Prius-like driving ease. On the move, the car feels smooth and refined, though there’s a fairly pronounced “rubber-band effect” from its CVT transmission and performance is noticeably below the level of the 1.4 litre petrol manual we’ve already tested.

Steering is on the light side of acceptable, but very good at parking speeds. Our test car understeered markedly and lacked the steering precision of the best Europeans, but such matters pale when you consider this is a car whose combined fuel consumption will be in the middle 70s, and which means it should deliver 60 mpg in real world driving.

Should I buy one?

If saving fuel and producing a minimum of CO2 are vital to your motoring, this will be a good car to own, though it will take genuine real-world testing to affirm that it’s usefully better than the Yaris diesel, which emits only 104g/km of CO2 and costs a cool £3000 less. The rear coup, we can’t help thinking, will come when Toyota unites a modern, small capacity direct injection turbodiesel with its Prius mechanicals. That’ll be a real economy car.

Steve Cropley

Toyota Yaris Hybrid

Price: £17,500 (est); Top speed: 110mph (est); 0-62 mph: 12.0sec; Economy: 75mpg (combined); EV range: 1.3 miles; Engine type, cc: 1496cc, 4cyl, 16v; Motor: Battery electric; Power: 73bhp + 26bhp; Torque: na; Gearbox: stepless CVT