Toyota certainly isn’t wasting any time implementing its plan to debut 21 new hybrid models by the end of 2015.
Indeed, the auto manufacturer recently rolled out the Auris Touring Sports hybrid at the Paris Motor Show.
According to Toyota, the Auris is the first wagon style vehicle available in the mainstream C-segment (i.e. compact) with a full hybrid powertrain. It is said wagon variants represent up to a quarter of sales in this segment, so Toyota is clearly testing the waters here with a hybrid offering keeps in line with its planned strategy.
Toyota notes the Auris Touring Sports variant is 285 mm longer than its hatchback sibling, with the advantage of increased luggage capacity. It also boasts an overall reduction in model height as well as a lower center of gravity, along with a new bumper and tailgate design, among other exterior design touches.
The Touring Sports is, in essence, part of an significant overhaul of a production hatchback that has served Toyota well since European models first went on sale in 2007. The automaker’s general notes on the new Auris look and feel emphasizes that the vehicle “reflects [our] determination to engineer more appealing, dynamically engaging cars” that are “bolder, more dynamic, better equipped and cheaper to run than ever before.”
The hybrid system used in the Touring Sports is capable of operating both independently and in combination with regards to the on-board 1.8 litre VVT-i petrol engine and 60 kW electric motor. It gives the car a 0-100 km/h (62 MPH) acceleration time of 10.9 seconds and a maximum speed of 180 km/h (111 MPH).
As part of the hybrid integration, the Touring Sports and other Auris hybrids have what’s described as “an exclusive meter and Eco Drive Support monitor design within the driver’s instrument binnacle, a hybrid blue shift-by-wire gear lever and hybrid-exclusive instrument panel ornamentation.”
