Fleet World Fleet: Toyota Corolla Commercial 1.8 Hybrid

The Toyota Corolla Commercial settles easily into everyday working life.

Price OTR: £24,003 Payload 425kg Economy: 55.6-61.4mpg CO2 emissions: 105g/km On fleet: 85.5mpg

Loading is proving easy

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The Corolla Commercial continues to impress. At the working end, it has helped me collect a load of logs and also remove a load of rotten timber to the recycling centre. While the load area is not accessible from a forklift, small loads are not particularly problematic. That’s partly because it retains the rear side doors, which makes it easy to access the load area from front or back. The non-slip rubber flooring is also a bonus too. Most things stay where they are put, while the load securing eyes in the floor and also the front bulkhead frame provide useful load securing points.

We have undertaken some long trips in the Corolla and the standard spec is impressive, making lengthy journeys comfortable and the driving experience almost as simple as driving an electric vehicle. The heated seats are very welcome in the winter weather and the auto-dipping LED headlamps light the road up well and avoid dazzling oncoming drivers. Fuel consumption remains impressive, still hovering close to an indicated 60mpg. The hybrid system grabs every opportunity to run on electric power and although Corolla Commercial is relatively new to the market, development is not finished yet. Do we like it? Yes, we do.

The Corolla Commercial is built at Toyota’s Burnaston plant alongside the Corolla Hatchback and Touring Sports

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After driving the Corolla Commercial at its recent launch, we wanted to see how the promise of the Toyota petrol/electric hybrid powertrain stands up as an alternative to diesel.

As we pointed out at the time, the Corolla Commercial is well equipped with a range of safety and convenience items as standard. About the only things that might be missed are parking sensors, although there is a reversing camera as standard (just don’t wait for the beeps, the noise you would hear won’t be quite so reassuring). There’s no sat-nav either, but with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, plug your phone in and it does the job just as well with minimal data consumption.

So far, we’re impressed. It would serve any fleet where small loads are the norm and a car-like driving experience a bonus. A bit like the Readypower Group, which has just taken on 45 Corolla Commercials to replace a diesel-powered fleet.

I’m getting between 59 and 60mpg regularly, including some long motorway trips. With petrol significantly less than diesel at the moment, that’s quite an incentive. The suspension is a bit on the soft side but that makes it a comfortable motorway cruiser.

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