Toyota Corolla Commercial (2021 - 2022)

Take a Toyota Corolla Touring Sports model, remove the back seats, black-out the rear windows, fit a bulkhead mesh and a rubberised floor and the end result is the very functional Toyota Corolla Commercial. 

It is the UK and Europe’s first full-charging, full-hybrid van and it boasts  plenty of practical plus-points, but still drives just like the car from which it is derived.

There is just one trim level and it is powered by a highly-efficient petrol-hybrid powertrain that delivers impressive day-to-day running costs.

And with clever disguising, the good news for anyone who regularly leaves equipment inside a van, is it is difficult to tell it apart from the car so it shouldn’t attract extra attention.

The Corolla Commercial has been developed and built in the UK. It was shown in concept form at the 2021 Commercial Vehicle Show where it was greeted with great enthusiast so went into full production in May this year.

It has no rear seats, but instead is fitted with a flat-floor loading space with a tough rubber lining. There is a steel bulkhead to protect occupants from any on-board goods and the windows have an opaque film to black them out. This allows the vehicle to officially qualify as a goods vehicle.

It has LED headlights, electrically-adjustable and heated door mirrors, a gloss black grille and 15-inch steel wheels.

Inside, there are black fabric upholstered seats which can be heated and the Toyota Touch 2 infotainment system with an eight-inch touchscreen, voice recognition, smartphone integration via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a six-speaker sound system, Bluetooth and a reversing camera.

The Corolla Commercial boasts the full Toyota Safety Sense suite of safety systems to protect occupants and other road users. This includes a pre-collision system, adaptive cruise control, automatic high beam, lane departure alert with lane trace assist, sway warning and road sign assistance.

The front-wheel drive Corolla Commercial is powered by a four-cylinder, 1.8-litre petrol hybrid engine delivering 122hp and 142Nm of torque. It may not sound that punchy, but the acceleration through the automatic CVT transmission is smooth enough with a 0-62mph sprint time of 11.1 seconds and top speed of 112mph.

The really good news though is the Corolla Commercial handles just like the car and there are drive modes called Eco, Normal and Sport to alter the driving characteristics, along with a full EV mode. There are no paddles, but by choosing a B mode on the gear selector the level of regenerative braking is increased to boost the battery whilst driving.

The steering is relatively light, but offers enough driver feedback and the vehicle is grounded when fizzing through the country lanes. It gets a little echoey inside the cabin when cruising at 70mph on motorways, but otherwise is nicely refined. 

It runs in EV mode whenever possible to save fuel and reduce emissions  with the introduction of the engine completed automatically and seamlessly in the background.

Unlike some vans, the ride quality is impressive with the suspension system smoothing out all but the roughest bumps along the way.

The Toyota Corolla Commercial is based on the Corolla Touring Sport model and stretches 4,650mm in length, is 1,790mm wide (excluding mirrors) and 1,460mm high. 

Access to the load bay is via a standard tailgate, but the two rear doors also open as normal so you can reach items closer to the bulkhead, which is far easier than scrambling on your hands and knees as is necessary in a traditional van.

The van has a load capacity of 1,326 litres with a payload of up to 425kg and the rubberised flooring prevents items from rolling around while also protecting the vehicle from spills and leaks. It can tow a trailer weighing up to 750kg.

There are a number of additional storage compartments up front, such as a glovebox, door bins with space for a bottle, two cup holders, a central cubby and a large tray that is ideal to hold a phone.

The seats offer good comfort levels and, along with the steering wheel, can be adjusted to find the ideal driving position. The visibility is excellent forwards, sideways and backwards (if the loading bay is not stacked to the roof), but the over-the-shoulder visibility is non-existent due to the blacked-out windows.

With just one model on offer, the choices for the Toyota Corolla Commercial are limited. It costs £21,640.83 excluding VAT or has an on-the-road price of £27,040.

Our test model had just one option which was metallic paint and that added £525 to the overall cost.

Commercial vehicles have a single set road tax or Vehicle Excise Duty charge of £290. According to official figures, under WLTP testing, the Corolla Commercial can deliver a combined 55.6 to 61.4mpg with carbon emissions of 105g/km.

For business drivers, it has a Benefit in Kind tax rating of 26 per cent and the vehicle sits in insurance group 27.

The standard three-year, 60,000-mile warranty can easily be extended to 10 years or 100,000 miles with regular services through a recognised Toyota workshop.

There has been quite a reduction in the choice for van drivers lately with many traditional diesel or petrol models ditched in favour of a fully electric variant. This jump can be too drastic for some people, so Toyota has come up with a perfect solution.

That’s because the Corolla Commercial covers with the middle ground. It’s neither tradition ICE or fully electric. Instead, it gently moves drivers forward with full-hybrid technology. And, according to Toyota, they can’t make them quick enough.