2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid Hatchback Review

With over 50 million units sold since its inception in 1966, the Toyota Corolla is easily the world’s best-selling car ever. Now in its twelfth generation (plus many spin offs and other variants, like the Corolla Cross), the Corolla’s appeal is simple: it’s affordable, reliable and practical transport for the whole world. However, with SUVs making up the majority of the world’s new car sales, the Corolla can focus on less ‘traditionally corolla’ elements to win over sales – the current shape is far more appealing to enthusiasts than ever before. Has it turned too sporty or too impractical? We tested the 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid hatchback to find out.

The Corolla is playing in a smaller field these days, with some competition like the Ford Focus exiting the Australian market. Despite this and the big switch to SUVs, the Corolla is still quite popular – its 2023 sales may be 23 per cent down on 2022, but Toyota’s well-known wait times are hampering its sales significantly. Is it worth consideration over other small hatchbacks?

Price & Equipment: 8/10

Beneath the fire-breathing GR, the 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid is the most money you can spend on a Corolla hatchback in Australia. Priced from $38,120 plus on-road costs (or around $42,000 drive away), the ZR features a long list of equipment – though it could be longer, in our opinion.

Standard equipment includes 18-inch alloy wheels, dusk-sensing all-LED lighting, auto wipers, keyless entry and start, heated and auto-folding mirrors, rear privacy glass, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearknob, leather and suede upholstery, a 10-way electrically adjustable driver’s seat, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control with rear vents, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation with live traffic, digital radio, an eight-speaker JBL sound system, a wireless phone charger, a 12.3-inch digital driver’s display, two USB-C ports, selectable driving modes, an auto-dimming rear mirror and the Toyota Connected Services suite which includes remote functions and monitoring through an a smartphone app.

Safety kit includes seven airbags, auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian, cyclist and intersection assist, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, lane keep assist with lane trace assist, adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality, low-speed reverse automatic braking, auto high beam, a heads-up display, driver attention monitoring, speed sign recognition, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera and the safety components of the Toyota Connected Services suite which include an SOS button and automatic collision notification.

The only no-cost colour option for the Corolla ZR is ‘Glacier White’, with ‘Frosted White’, ‘Jasper Red’, ‘Graphite’ (grey), ‘Eclipse Black’, ‘Lunar Blue’, ‘Sunstone Orange’ and our test car’s ‘Silver Pearl’ adding $575 to the price. A black roof is available on the red, orange, pearl white, silver and blue options for $1,350 (including the cost of the colour). The interior is all-black, but black with red highlights is available for no extra cost on all colours. Our silver test car had both the black roof and red interior.

Compared with overseas versions of the Corolla, we miss out on a larger 10.5-inch touchscreen, panoramic roof, adaptive high beam, height adjustable front passenger seat, rear USB charging ports and automatic parking. We think that adding even some of these features available overseas would make the Corolla a more well-rounded and appealing car.

Despite the shrinking market, there are still a number of mainstream competitors to the Corolla hatchback, including the Hyundai i30, Mazda3, Volkswagen Golf, Honda Civic, Peugeot 308, Subaru Impreza, Skoda Scala and Kia Cerato. Only the Corolla and Civic are available with hybrid drivetrains, so we consider the Honda Civic e:HEV LX ($55,000 drive away) and petrol-only Mazda3 Astina (around $45,000 drive away) to be the Corolla’s closest competition.

Despite being a hybrid, the Corolla’s price advantage is obvious – it’s $3,000 less expensive than the Mazda3 and a full $12,000 less expensive than the Civic. Despite the price advantage, both the 3 Astina and Civic e:HEV LX don’t feature that much more kit: the 3 Astina adds a heated steering wheel, memory for the driver’s seat, a 360-degree camera, a small sunroof and a larger infotainment screen, while the Civic features a heated steering wheel, panoramic roof and rear USB ports, but that’s largely it. Because of this – despite how it’s priced over $40,000 drive away – we think the Corolla ZR Hybrid is good value for money.

Performance & Economy: 8.5/10

Under the bonnet of the 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid is a 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol hybrid drivetrain, which is mated to an eCVT transmission. It’s been upgraded compared to the pre-facelifted Corolla, with a new lithium ion battery and beefed up electric motor for a higher 103kW peak power figure – 13kW higher than the pre-facelifted model. This is less power than both the 139kW Mazda3 Astina and the 135kW Honda Civic e:HEV LX, but the Corolla doesn’t feel that much slower in real life.

Because of the upgraded performance, the claimed 0-100km/h sprint time for the ZR Hybrid hatchback is 9.1 seconds – not amazingly quick, but noticeably faster than the pre-facelifted car, which took in excess of 11 seconds to complete sprint. That means that now, finally, the Corolla Hybrid has more of the power it deserves to match its excellent chassis – though we still wish the 146kW 2.0-litre hybrid Corolla on offer in Europe would make its way to Australia.

As with all other Toyota hybrid models, the Corolla ZR Hybrid can be very quiet or somewhat noisy depending on your throttle positioning. Floor it and it can be noisy thanks to the eCVT transmission, but because of the extra oomph compared with the pre-facelifted car, you don’t need to do that anywhere near as much – helping both refinement and economy. The upgraded electric motor has made it easier to cruise along in EV mode too, and it will now get up to around 60km/h in ideal conditions on electric power alone, which is higher than what we could achieve when testing the new Civic Hybrid.

The claimed combined fuel consumption for the 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid hatchback is 4.0L/100km, with CO2 emissions rated at 91g/km – that’s 0.3L/100km less than the Civic hybrid and 2.6L/100km less than the non-hybrid Mazda3. Our testing across a range of conditions returned an average of 5.0L/100km, though our test car was near new, so we’d expect improved economy with more kilometres on the odometre. Helping costs even further is that the Corolla can run on 91RON regular unleaded and it has a 43-litre fuel tank.

Ride & Handling: 9/10

Using the same ‘TNGA’ platform as almost every other new Toyota product since 2017, the 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid hatchback drives very well – way better than you’d expect for a humble car like the Corolla. In fact, with the current generation model’s release in 2018, the Corolla’s dynamics have gone from also-ran to – in our opinion – one of the class leaders. Thanks to its sharp chassis and quick steering, it’s capable of some proper driving fun – plus, its ride is better than the 3 and Civic.

Thankfully, despite the fun attitude and 18-inch wheels, the Corolla ZR Hybrid hatch also rides quite well with a nimble feeling translating well to the ride, which offers a good mix of firm and soft, and isn’t fazed by Australia’s rubbish roads. The body control is sharp too, so it deals with bumps quite quickly. Toyota’s active safety equipment is also quite well tuned – we particularly like the lane trace assist, which manages to keep the car in between the lines quite well. Road noise levels aren’t the best, however – not helped by how quiet the drivetrain is – and rear visibility isn’t great thanks to its small windows.

Interior & Practicality: 7.5/10

The interior of the 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid hatchback has been gently improved with its mid-life update with new screens, some new features and a higher-tech feeling. The material quality is still generally pretty good with soft touch materials on the door tops and dashboard, plus excellent quality leather and suede upholstery on the seats and doors. The switchgear used also feels reasonable quality as well – not to the same highs as the Mazda3, but pretty equal to the Civic.

Centre of the Corolla’s cabin is an 8.0-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay, wired Android Auto, satellite navigation with live traffic and digital radio. As we discovered in the Corolla Cross, the new generation of Toyota infotainment system is a big improvement on the previous system as the screen quality is much better, it’s faster and it’s got more features like wireless Apple CarPlay and ‘hey Toyota’ voice recognition, which you can even use to – for example – lower the windows. Shame that the reversing camera quality hasn’t been upgraded to match.

The new 12.3-inch digital driver’s display is also a big improvement on the 7.0-inch unit that featured in the pre-facelifted car thanks to its superior quality and customisation. It also gives a wider range of information and adds a richer feel to the cabin. The eight-speaker JBL sound system is reasonable as well, though it could do with more bass like the Bose units in the Mazda3 and Civic.

The storage inside the Corolla ZR Hybrid hatch is fine, with two reasonable cup holders, a medium bin underneath the centre armrest, a reasonable glovebox, big door bins and a tray underneath the centre console with a wireless phone charger. It’s a bit better than the Mazda3 but not quite to the same level as the Civic.

As with the pre-facelifted car, the rear seat of the 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid hatch is not its strongest point. Rear legroom is fairly limited, even for smaller adults, while headroom is just fine for six-footers – just like the Mazda3, but a Civic feels roomier. There are a few features like bottle holders in the doors, air vents, a map pocket and a centre armrest with cup holders, but no charging ports.

The boot of the Corolla hatchback – like the pre-updated car – is still okay but nowhere near class-leading for space. At just 333-litres, it’s larger than the Mazda3’s but still 76L smaller than the Civic – and the 3 features a spare tyre, where as the Corolla ZR Hybrid hatchback and Civic do not. The boot has a few hooks and a bit of underfloor storage but that’s it for clever features.

Service & Warranty: 9/10

As with other Toyota products, the 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid comes with a five-year/unlimited km warranty with an extra two years’ mechanical warranty if it’s serviced at a Toyota dealership and a total of 10 years’ warranty for the battery if annual battery health checks are undertaken. No roadside assistance is offered with new Toyotas, but five years/75,000km of servicing costs just $1,225 ($245 per service).

Both Mazda and Honda also feature five-year/unlimited km warranties, though they both have five years of roadside assistance. Five years/50,000km of servicing the Mazda3 costs $2,054 ($410 per service) and the same for the Civic costs $995 ($199 per service) but in that time, the Corolla can travel 25,000km further between services, making it a great value for money service and warranty package.

The 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid Hatchback DiscoverAuto Rating: 8.4/10

Despite the Corolla no longer being the cheap small car it once was and also some loss of practicality compared with the previous generation, we’re still big fans of the 2023 Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid. It remains a well-rounded product with excellent driving dynamics, great fuel efficiency, a long list of standard equipment, intuitive technology and cheap running costs. The 2023 model’s upgraded drivetrain with more power has made it better to drive, while its new interior screens give it a more polished and high-tech feel inside.

Of course, the rear seat and boot aren’t huge, it misses out on some desirable equipment on offer in Europe and despite the added performance, it’s still not the quickest car on the block. But we still think that if you’re after a hatchback, the Corolla is a great option – especially the hybrid drivetrain in funky ZR spec. The Mazda3 and Civic are well-rounded too, but the Corolla adds a very efficient drivetrain, longer service intervals and better value for money into the mix too. With such a great all-round package, it’s no wonder the Corolla is still the world’s best selling car.