Tested: 2023 Toyota Corolla Hybrid SE AWD Is a Four-Season Fuel Miser

Each month we receive letters chastising us for our wanton glorification of impractical, expensive, ridiculously overpowered, and inefficient vehicles. Where are the real cars, you say? Well, here's one for you: the 2023 Toyota Corolla Hybrid SE AWD. It costs $27,610, gets an EPA-estimated 44 mpg combined, and will probably still be running when the sun is but a cold gray orb in darkest space. It's also slow, hitting 60 mph in 9.0 seconds—except when its hybrid battery is depleted, in which case we're talking more like 10.2 seconds. The Corolla Hybrid's pleasures are cerebral rather than visceral. It's like the opposite of a Ram TRX. Please keep reading.

While this review concerns the all-wheel-drive Corolla Hybrid, which is new, we should also mention that the front-drive Corolla Hybrid is back and positioned to appeal to those miserly types who find an all-wheel-drive Corolla just too indulgent. In LE trim, the 2023 front-drive hybrid, at $23,810, is priced $1250 lower than the 2022 model and earns a 50-mpg EPA combined rating. The all-wheel-drive LE, by comparison, costs $25,210 and gets a 48-mpg EPA combined rating. Despite its extra motor on the rear axle, the all-wheel-drive hybrid is no more powerful than the front-drive car. Both are rated at 134 net horsepower and 156 lb-ft of torque. That's up from last year's 121 horsepower and 105 lb-ft, but a RAV4 Prime this is not. Still, the last Corolla Hybrid we tested was considerably slower, at 10.7 seconds to 60 mph.

Our SE all-wheel-drive test car earns the lowest EPA-rated combined fuel economy of any Corolla Hybrid, notching a still impressive 44 mpg. And on our 75-mph fuel-economy loop, the Corolla returned 40 mpg, very close to its EPA highway figure of 41 mpg. But in real-world driving, we tended to be more aggressive with the throttle, as it's difficult to practice restraint when, for instance, a trip from 50 to 70 mph requires 6.4 seconds of Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder fury. The 2ZR-FXE 1.8-liter four tries its best to stay in the background, but accelerating at any rate higher than tepid requires rpm to meet CVT for an unholy battle in which there are no winners. The Corolla Hybrid begrudgingly dispatches the quarter-mile in 16.9 seconds at 80 mph.

Much better, then, to take it easy and allow the Corolla to lean on its electric side as much as possible. The lithium-ion battery stashed under the rear seat is new, replacing the previous nickel-metal hydride unit, although it still doesn't allow for much EV range. But the three electric motors (93 horsepower and one with unspecified output in front, 40 horsepower rear) are muscular enough to keep the Corolla Hybrid moving at highway speeds if the battery has sufficient charge. Climbing the long grade up to the Natchez Trace Parkway outside Nashville, Tennessee, required all hands on deck from both sides of the powertrain, but the drive back down was silent and serene as regenerative braking refilled the depleted battery. A Corolla Hybrid driver would, we hope, derive satisfaction from banking energy on the way down the hill instead of just warming up the brake rotors (everyone has a different definition of thrills).