New Toyota Corolla vs India-spec Corolla Altis: Exterior & Interior Changes

The new Corolla sedan will also be available with a hybrid powertrain and should come to India by late-2019 or early-2020

• Toyota revealed the 12th generation Corolla sedan in China and the US simultaneously

• The new Corolla is built on Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform

• The new Corolla is expected to come to India by late-2019 or early-2020

• Toyota is yet to announce a diesel engine for the new Corolla

Toyota recently revealed the 12th generation Corolla sedan in China and the US. Both the sedans look different, and it is the China-spec car which will most likely replace the Corolla Altis in India. This change is expected to happen by end of 2019 or early 2020. The current Corolla Altis sold in India is a facelift of the eleventh gen sedan which was launched back in May 2014. Let’s have a look at how the Corolla Altis sold in India differs from the new Corolla sedan shown at the 2018 Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition.

Dimensions

The new generation Corolla shown in China is longer and wider than the current generation Corolla Altis sold in India. Although the roof has been lowered by 40mm, the wheelbase stays identical. Taking into account the marginal increase in dimensions and no increase in wheelbase, we expect the cabin of the new Corolla to be just as spacious as the current version.

Design

Toyota sharpened the Corolla Altis’ frontal appearance when it introduced the facelift in March 2017. The Corolla facelift tried hard to look sporty predominantly on the basis of trimmed headlamps. In comparison, sportiness in design is more natural in the latest version. The headlamps look slimmer than before, and individual elements like the large C-shaped element around the fog lamps along with the bigger front grille add some aggressiveness to the design.

Compared to the front, the rear gets a more comprehensive design overhaul. It looks sharper and the design has been tightened with excess bulk in places like the headlamps, bonnet, bumpers and tail lamps being trimmed to look lean and mean. The new design should attract a younger audience for sure.

Interiors

If ‘sharper’ can be the one word to describe the Corolla’s exterior, the word ‘minimalist’ should fit well for its interior. The current generation Corolla Altis has a dual-tone (black and beige) interior in India, but the new version features an all-black interior in China. The all-black interior compliments the sporty exterior design of the sedan.

The steering wheel is again a three-spoke unit, but it looks slimmer than the existing one. The dashboard design is also clutter-free. There’s a free-standing touchscreen infotainment system on top, air-con vents below it and air-con controls further below. The centre tunnel that extends from the dashboard and the front two seats doesn’t appear to be too wide, like in most modern premium cars. The gear lever for the automatic transmission has a straight up and down motion and not a slotted motion like in the current version.

Powertrain

The Corolla Altis in India is currently offered with a 1.8-litre petrol engine that produces 140PS of max power and 173Nm of peak torque. The diesel engine is a smaller 1.4-litre unit that is turbocharged and dishes out 88PS of max power and 205Nm of torque. While the petrol and diesel engine are offered with a 6-speed manual transmission as standard, the petrol variant can also be had with an automatic (CVT) transmission.Toyota has not confirmed the new Corolla for India yet and it remains to be seen which engines would come to India. Toyota is yet to marry the TNGA architecture with a diesel engine anywhere, so it’s unlikely that the new Corolla will get a diesel engine in India when it is launched. What we expect, though, is a hybrid powertrain.

Overall, the new Corolla looks sportier than the existing version inside-out. While there’s a completely new platform sitting underneath the new Corolla, the exterior design only appears to be an evolution of the current version. The dimensions haven’t changed much, so the new Corolla should be just as big to look at as the current version. Let us know how you find the design of the new Corolla in the comments section below.

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