Toyota Yaris Hybrid: Previews new Yaris

Toyota Yaris Hybrid - a preview of the next-gen Yaris

Toyota are determined to shove hybrid gubbins in anything they build that moves, so we now get a hybrid version of the next generation Yaris revealed at Geneva.

Just as Toyota aren’t saying if the new Prius+ will get the regular 1.8 litre hybrid drivetrain (we think it will), they’re also not saying if the Toyota Yaris Hybrid will get it. We’re assuming not, because it would then out-perform both the Prius and the Auris Hybrid, which would never do. So we’re guessing it will get a 1.3 or 1.5 litre Atkinson lump to go play with the electric motor and batteries.

We already struggle to see why you would want to put a costly and complicated HSD powertrain in a small and normally inexpensive car like the Auris. Even though we are full of admiration for Toyota’s ability to not only do so but to make it seemingly bullet-proof. Astonishing.

But HSD in a supermini is surely taking an eco-sledgehammer to crack an economy nut – an eco-step too far. If you want it frugal around town go the supercharged 3-pot route or any number of less costly solutions. We just don’t get it. It’s as if Toyota are obsessed with hybrids and producing a hybrid supermini just to prove they can.

More interesting though is the Yaris itself. This is the next generation, 2012 Toyota Yaris; sharper and more grown-up. It’s already been launched in Japan as the new Toyota Viz and will launch here in 2012.

And not just with the pretentious HSD lump of gubbins

By Cars UK