Toyota Adjusts Yaris Future

Hybrid Version of Next-Gen Small Car Planned

Toyota's subcompact cars plans have been knocked sideways by the recession. The company was planning a new generation version of its Toyota Yaris that would feature the innovative engineering of the tiny iQ, but it will now instead rebody the current Yaris (pictured) for 2012.

However, in search of ultra-economy, Toyota will make a hybrid version -- a full hybrid, as opposed to the mild-hybrid system in the Honda Insight. Toyota plans to release hybrids across its range. In Europe it is launching an Auris -- the European Corolla-equivalent hatchback -- with Hybrid Synergy Drive. Toyota executive Takuo Matsui told MT "I strongly hope [we will make a Yaris-size hybrid] and I am pushing R&D for it."

Honda will shortly install its IMA hybrid system from the Insight into the Fit.

The iQ is still expected to come to the U.S. as a Scion. It's a tiny, 118-inch-long, 3+1-seater hatchback that manages to be so space efficient by utilizing several all-new packaging solutions around the engine, plus a redesigned differential, firewall, steering system, and air conditioner.

The original plan was to design a range of subcompacts longer than the iQ but with the same packaging solutions and front platform, yielding a very spacious five-seat car, and an additional seven-seater a little bigger than a Honda Fit. But now, the need to save money on retooling Yaris plants means the current car will get a straightforward rebody.

This strengthens the case for a hybrid Yaris. Packaging the hybrid system under the iQ’s snub hood would have been near impossible, whereas in the current platform it will be easier. Even so, making a hybrid small car cheap enough to be worthwhile, both for the manufacturers and consumers, is an enormous challenge.

Meanwhile, as previously reported here, the iQ will form the basis of Toyota’s pure-electric car for America in 2012. The EV will share most of its exterior panels with the gas version.