Despite the coming ads that show rock and rollers driving them, these are for practicality-focused families.
- Toyota’s Corolla Cross Hybrid boosts efficiency, with 10 more miles per gallon EPA combined than the non-hybrid Corolla Cross.
- The hybrid model gets unique front and rear treatments, too.
- If you keep it long enough you will pay off the roughly $5000 price hike.
Toyota changed the world when it introduced the Prius in 1997, the first mass-production commercially available hybrid passenger car. Since then, Toyota has gone on to introduce more hybrids than any other manufacturer ever, even as the world switches to battery electric vehicles. So is Toyota behind the globe in the adoption of all-electric vehicles, or just playing it smart by waiting until those BEVs become profitable? Perhaps the latter, but here’s another hybrid for the Toyota Pantheon of Hybrids: the 2023 Corolla Cross Hybrid.
With or without the hybrid drivetrain, the Corolla Cross puts a premium on practicality, with plenty of room inside and a reasonable sticker price. It is not an exciting car to look at or drive, but it addresses the needs of many young urban and suburban families who have given up on being sexy and just want a reliable family vehicle. In the Corolla Cross Hybrid, they get it.
Corolla Cross Hybrid gets its own front and rear treatments.
NATHAN LEACH-PROFFER
The regular Corolla Cross came into being less than two years ago, riding on the same TNGA-C platform as the Corolla, Prius, and Prius Prime. TNGA-C also underpinned the stylish-but-slow C-HR, which has been discontinued but which you could say was replaced by the Corolla Cross. Is that too much platform nomenclature?
The Corolla Cross Hybrid shares the same wheelbase, width, and height as the conventional Corolla Cross, but adds length. The Corolla Cross is a little smaller than crossovers like the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, and its own big brother, the Toyota RAV4. Total EPA passenger volume in the Corolla Cross Hybrid is 88.4 cubic feet without the moonroof (or 87.3 cubic feet with it), which is plenty to pack in a family of four and all their accompanying accoutrement.
The Corolla Cross Hybrid offers a relatively uncluttered interior headlined by a single, upright infotainment screen in the middle of the dash and the requisite 4 million cupholders, door pockets, and various cubbyholes for stashing contraband—or stray Cheerios. Of course, it has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and the Toyota Audio Multimedia System, an infotainment extravaganza offering “a wide range of enhanced connectivity and convenience features.”
If you pay for the Connected Service Drive Connect, you’ll get Intelligent Assist, Cloud Navigation, and Destination Assist, all of which sound like they’d be available for free on Apple CarPlay. The usual phalanx of safety electronics is present, with everything from Pre-Collision and Pedestrian Detection to Dynamic Radar Cruise Control and Lane Tracing Assist.
Click the Drive Mode toggle up into Sport, and it suddenly comes alive, or at least wakes up.
But the hybrid is what we’re all here to see, isn’t it? With a 150-hp 2.0-liter transverse-mounted four-cylinder mated to a 152-lb-ft permanent magnet synchronous electric motor, the drivetrain puts out 196 combined net horsepower, 27 more hp than the non-hybrid Corolla Cross and 52 hp more than the now-deceased C-HR.
That’s enough to propel the approximately 3400-pound Corolla Cross Hybrid quickly enough to stay out of the way of semis and to get onto the freeway onramp safely. But you won’t be bracket racing this thing on Saturday Night Grudge Matches. There’s no 0-60-mph figure listed by Toyota and—forgive me—I didn’t try to time a run myself, but it is certainly quicker than the C-HR’s 0-60 time of 11 seconds by at least several seconds.
On the road you’ll notice that the character of the Cross depends largely on which drive mode you put it in. Run around in Normal mode and you may be underwhelmed, unless you’re going for gas mileage. Click the Drive Mode toggle up into Sport, and it suddenly comes alive, or at least wakes up. In sport mode it might even be fun, by the standards of the class.
Corolla Cross Hybrid’s dash is straightforward and uncluttered.
NATHAN LEACH-PROFFER
But the performance most hybrid buyers will be interested in is at the gas pump, and here the Corolla Cross Hybrid does well, with EPA mileage figures of 45 mpg city/38 mpg highway/42 mpg combined. That’s better than the larger hybrid crossovers, including Honda CR-V and Toyota’s own RAV4, both of which are heavier.
Prices for the Corolla Cross Hybrid range from $29,305 for an unladen S model up to $38,040 for a fully loaded XSE. Remember, all Corolla Cross Hybrids come with all-wheel drive and a hybrid drivetrain, so if you’re searching the internet and find something that costs less, check and see if it’s just front-wheel drive and no hybrid, because there are a lot of those.
And for mileage figures, consider that while the Corolla Cross without the hybrid drivetrain costs around five grand less, it only returns 32 mpg combined. So, if you buy the hybrid and drive it 134,000 miles, you could pay off the five-grand or so increase in sticker price, depending on the cost of fuel.
In any case, Toyotas are known for longevity, and if you follow the recommended service found in your owner’s manual, you could still drive for years after reaching the 134,000-mile mark. So go down to your Toyota dealer and see if you can stand the bland exterior of this otherwise fine family crossover.
Mark Vaughn Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products and everyone who ever worked there.
Keyword: Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid Perfect for Young Families Who Need Room