2023 Toyota Corolla Hybrid

Pros

• AWD accessibility
• Upgraded entertainment system
• Extremely efficient

Cons

• It might be more significant inside.
• On the Elantra, the screens that show information are more giant.

Toyota has made hybrid drivetrains better than they used to be. The Corolla Hybrid still has a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine and two electric motor generators, but it now makes 134 horsepower and 156 lb-ft of torque instead of just 121.

The 2023 Corolla Hybrid has an all-wheel-drive system with a separate electric motor in the back. People who live where it rains a lot should benefit significantly from this. Toyota says this is the only small hybrid that can drive on all four wheels. Only the SE models, which get the sportier Corolla Apex’s heavier power steering tune, will change how the Corolla Hybrid drives.

The combined fuel efficiency has decreased a little: cars with front-wheel drive get 47 mpg (50 city/43 highway), and vehicles with all-wheel drive get 44 mpg (47 city/41 highway). These numbers are much lower than the 2022 Corolla Hybrid’s combined mileage of 52 mpg (53 in the city and 52 on the road).

We went for a short drive in a Corolla Hybrid LE AWD to test the new system and see if the extra power helped. But there needed to be a better chance of seeing the AWD system work on a warm day outside Nashville on dry roads. The electric motor in the back starts making power once the front wheels lose grip.

The Corolla Hybrid is the best for daily driving (until the GR Corolla comes out), but it did give us an excellent chance to see how much more power the hybrid system adds everywhere. Continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) can be hard to drive because they move slowly when starting from a stop and have engines that hum when driving on the highway. The battery and electric motor boosts the Corolla Hybrid, making the accelerator pedal feel more responsive, especially at low speeds.

Still, the drone is fixed only some of the way. The Corolla Hybrid likes to move with electric power, but if you press the gas pedal more than halfway down, the gas engine will start up. When this happens, there is a loud hum inside the car, and the speed quickly goes up to 3,000 and 4,000 rpm. Lucky for us, the process works perfectly, and once the engine starts, the sedan speeds up smoothly. Yet the noise gets into your bones, and after about 30 minutes, you might seek methods to turn the engine off as much as possible.

The steering is a little soft, but the way the car drives is excellent. Even though the Corolla Hybrid isn’t a sports car, its suspension feels well-balanced on good roads, and it drives as well as anything else in its class.

Changes were also made to the inside. All versions have an upgraded 8-inch touchscreen in the middle. Lower trim levels must make do with a smaller, redesigned 4.2-inch information display in the instrument panel. At the same time, the top-of-the-line XLE also gets a new 7-inch information display in the instrument cluster. With an updated presentation and a new software interface, Toyota can offer over-the-air software updates and wireless connectivity as standard, allowing Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to be used with smartphones.

Even though it looks tighter than the back seat of the Honda Civic, the back seat is the same size as the rest of the class and will be too small for more prominent people. On the back of the center console, two standard USB Type-C ports can charge devices throughout the cabin.

Lastly, all 2023 models have Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 as a standard feature. Some safety features, like adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, and pre-collision warning, are made better by this update. For example, the radar sensors and front-facing cameras have been improved to have wider detection angles and higher resolution. This allows the pre-collision warning system to spot motorcyclists and pedestrians. Also, lane identification is enhanced when the adaptive cruise control is turned on. This makes the lane departure warning and steering assistance more accurate.

With its 90.6 kWh battery pack, the EQE should be able to travel more than 300 miles. Mercedes says that it takes 9.5 hours for a 240-volt Level 2 charger to charge the battery from 10% to 100% fully. Mercedes says that when the EQE’s battery is connected to a DC fast charger, it can be fully charged from 10% to 80% in 31 minutes.

But on our fuel-efficiency test route at 75 mph, our EQE350 test vehicle got 67 MPGe and 260 miles of range on the highway. The EPA still needs to calculate the EQE’s gas mileage.

The EQE’s entertainment system is built around the optional 56-inch-long Hyperscreen, which hides three screens under a single, sweeping piece of glass. It has a 17.7-inch touchscreen in the middle, a 12.3-inch screen for the person sitting in front, and a 12.3-inch screen on the digital gauge cluster panel. The spectacular interface, which uses the latest version of Mercedes’ MBUX software, lets the user access features without digging through menus or using voice commands.

Without the Hyperscreen, the EQE’s standard entertainment system is the 12.3-inch touchscreen. It has a fingerprint scanner that lets people get to their profiles. The standard equipment includes a Burmester sound system and a wireless charger. During our first drive, we noticed some strange things about the navigation system’s augmented reality video feed and how the route is shown on three screens, which is optional.

When comparing the 2023 Corolla to the one from the year before, there are now five different kinds. The LE is the most basic model, followed by the sporty SE and the XLE, which is the best. Toyota also has the LE AWD and SE AWD to round out its lineup. SE vehicles can also get the Infrared Edition package until 2023.

Toyota Corolla Hybrid models

Because all its models come with standard safety upgrades, the 2023 Toyota Corolla Hybrid feels like a complete package. Still, if you want the other people on the bus to hear you, you might have to get used to shouting.