David Linklater.

The new petrolelectric Corolla is thrifty for sure. But it’s also a quiet achiever in other ways, reports

When I got a Toyota Corolla hybrid for a week, I did exactly what you’re supposed to do in a Toyota Corolla hybrid: I commuted around the city in an unobtrusive manner to test its fuel economy.

Not strictly as an economy test, though. That would be exhausting and the only thing it would really have revealed is how much money you can save by annoying other motorists who are using their vehicles for actual transport.

So I drove normally in a weeklong 300 kilometre commuting regime, albeit with one eye on the battery charge and the other on the real-time economy/performance gauge that replaces the tachometer in this model: the needle dives down to blue when you’re charging the nickel metal-hydride batteries through braking or deceleration, climbs to green when you’re using the throttle in an optimum-eco manner and white if you’ve gone crazy with the go-pedal.

I aimed for green, of course, but not if it meant falling behind the traffic.

The result was impressive but also thoroughly unexciting as a story to tell. About five minutes after I reset the trip computer and drove the Corolla hybrid away, the average fuel economy readout settled at 5.7 litres per 100km and stayed there for the duration. It didn’t move as much as 0.1 of a litre.

Ordinarily I’d have wondered if it was broken. But this is a Toyota Corolla, so that would be impossible.

I have found this with many hybrids. In terms of fuel economy they do what they do, regardless of the driving conditions.

I had days of wall-to-wall traffic (which suits a hybrid very well, as it can crawl along on battery power) and others where I had to power down the motorway to appointments (not so good for a hybrid, as the battery gets depleted and the petrol engine works hard).

Granted, it gets harder to alter the average the more kilometres you pile on, but still: no change over an entire week. Corolla hybrid? It’s a model of consistency.

There’s no doubt that the petrolelectric Corolla is aimed at the cost-conscious. It comes only in a mid-level specification that’s roughly equivalent to the conventional Corolla GLX, albeit at a $3000 premium.

Toyota reckons that if you drive just 15,000km per year (hybrid fleet owners will surely do much more than that), you’ll save $2500 in fuel cost alone compared with the GLX over five years. Even though the hybrid asks for more expensive 95-octane fuel, whereas the GLX can run on 91.

For the record, those sums are based on the official ADR fuel consumption figures of 4.1 litres per 100km for the hybrid and 6.1 for the GLX. So far, so good . . . sort of. You’re still only breaking even with the hybrid and five years is quite a long time.

Surely it can’t really cost $3000 extra to produce a hybrid after so many millions of the things have emerged from Toyota factories?

Remember, there’s nothing new about the petrol-electric Corolla’s powertrain. It’s straight from the previous-generation Prius.

A familiar health bar, just in a different wrapper.

I reckon Toyota could offer the Corolla hybrid at the same price as the GLX if it really wanted to.

But put that aside for a moment and you could make a case for the hybrid being good value anyway.

The hybrid system produces 100kW compared with 103kW for the GLX, although the petrolelectric model weighs 90kg more overall. The GLX produces 173Nm of torque at 4000rpm, while hybrid’s Atkinson-cycle petrol powerplant makes 142Nm from 2800rpm.

There’s a whole lot more pulling power to the hybrid than that of course, but Toyota is notoriously shy about quoting hybrid-system torque figures.

In terms of straight-line performance, the two are close: 0-100kmh in 10.9 seconds for the hybrid, compared with 10 neat for the GLX.

Compared with the GLX, the hybrid adds extra equipment: biLED headlights with self-levelling, keyless entry (as per the top-line Levin models), extra steering wheel-mounted controls for the new 4.2-inch central information display and automatic dual-zone air conditioning.

Better, but we’re not there yet. So how about this: the hybrid is also the driver’s choice in the Corolla range.

Now, Toyota hybrids are not generally driver-focused machines.

The Corolla hybrid isn’t one by design, but necessity has been the mother of dynamic improvement in this case.

The electronic continuously variable transmission fitted to Toyota hybrids is traditionally a passion-killer, but remember that the standard Corolla automatic also has a CVT (albeit using different technology). It’s a little more engaging than that in the hybrid, with a calibration that prevents flaring at the top end and a seven-step pseudo-manual mode.

But the general demeanour is very similar for the two transmissions, so you’re not losing much by opting for the hybrid, which also offers three pushbutton modes: EV (you only get about 2km on electric power though), Eco and Power.

The extra weight of the hybrid might blunt acceleration a little, but it pays dividends in weight distribution because the batteries are under the back seat.

Because Toyota wanted to house the hybrid batteries without sacrificing boot space, the Corolla’s old-school torsion beam rear suspension has also been dropped in favour of a more sophisticated double-wishbone arrangement at the rear, as used in higher-specification Auris (Corolla by another name) models in Europe.

This all means a superior ride and more settled cornering attitude, although the hybrid’s Michelin Energy Saver tyres might temper your enthusiasm at the annual Corolla Owners Track Day.

Because of that extra weight, Toyota has also specified the hybrid with larger brakes. Bigger is always better when it comes to stopping power.

With Prius sales fading away, Toyota New Zealand is concentrating on mainstreaming its hybrid technology.

It’s already done so with Camry of course, but nothing is more mainstream than a Corolla and I reckon this is a promising effort, even if it’s made from very familiar ingredients.

Granted, the Corolla is not the most exciting car in the world. But in choosing the hybrid over the conventional GLX, there’s very little to lose and a lot to gain.