Even the Corolla Is Getting an Electric Version

Toyota used the Corolla Concept at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show to preview a next-generation Corolla that will be offered as a battery-electric car for the first time, alongside gas, hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions.

The concept is a low, wedge-shaped car with a short nose, a long glass roof and a fastback tail, and it looks nothing like the Corolla sold today. The concept previews the 13th-generation Corolla, which will use a new architecture meant to fit every one of those powertrains without giving up cabin space or styling.

At Toyota’s press briefing for the show, CEO Koji Sato described the Corolla as a car for everyone and said the concept was meant to work "whether it’s a battery EV, plug-in hybrid, hybrid, or internal combustion engine vehicle." Toyota’s booth page promised a diverse lineup for roads around the world and flexible packaging enabled by new engineering. The show ran from October 30 to November 9, 2025.

EV Central reported that the electric option is planned for the next Corolla hatchback, sedan and wagon, which would be the first battery-electric Corollas since the name arrived in 1966. Toyota has sold more than 50 million Corollas in that time. The outlet described the concept’s arrow-shaped headlights and full-width LED light bar, and it reported that Toyota executives declined to say when the new car would go on sale.

Toyota didn’t give a U.S. launch date or say which versions America will get. The stakes here are large, because the Corolla is one of Toyota’s biggest sellers in America. It sold 248,088 cars in 2025, up 6.5%, and Motor1 noted that the Corolla Hybrid had a record year. Through September 2026 the Corolla is up another 8.4% to 195,141, according to Toyota’s third-quarter sales report, and the Corolla Hybrid accounts for 36,734 of those.

The Corolla would also join a small electric lineup at Toyota’s U.S. dealers. The bZ crossover has sold 24,944 units through September, roughly double its pace a year ago, and the electric C-HR has added 7,215 this year.

The Toyota Report Take

Toyota has spent years saying it would sell every kind of powertrain rather than bet everything on batteries, and the next Corolla is the clearest test of that idea, because it puts gas, hybrid, plug-in and electric versions on one car instead of spreading them across separate models. For American buyers, the important version is still the hybrid, which sells in large numbers today. An electric Corolla could make sense here only if it lands close to the price of the gas car, and Toyota hasn’t given any sign of where that price will be.