The Corolla is Toyota’s compact sedan and hatchback. The automaker’s quick to remind us that drivers have bought 50 million Corollas over the past 60 years. But this model no longer dominates the market. Can a big pivot to an all-electric Corolla save the nameplate?

For decades, the sedan was the default vehicle configuration for most drivers. But as automakers engineered more efficient powertrains and cheaper manufacturing techniques, the crossover dethroned the sedan. Today, both the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V outsell the humble Corolla in the U.S. market. But that’s not all. Toyota’s latest generation of its mid-size Camry sedan only offers hybrid powertrains. FWD models are rated at 53 city/50 highway mpg (51 combined). With numbers like that, why bother with a compact sedan? Buyers seem to agree. So far in 2025, the Camry is leading the sedan market, followed by the Honda Civic, with the Corolla settling for third place. Now Toyota’s counting on electrification to reverse the trend.

Something new is brewing at Toyota

Toyota’s gearing up for the 2025 Japan Mobility car show. To create buzz, it just dropped a 60-second TV spot which stitches together panning shots of a bunch of Toyota models—past and present—driving along. The final blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot is the new Toyota Corolla concept car. How do I know? Its badges say “Corolla,” and its license plate literally says “concept.”

The compact car, which is likely to debut at the car show, is an EV. It has an electric charger door, but no gasoline fuel filler cap. The concept also has styling reminiscent of a Lucid sedan, with its wheels at the outermost corners of the vehicle to maximize interior space. It also has a Lucid-like square front end and dramatically raked windshield. Designers actually accentuated this feature with a two-tone hood which has a black center section.

The front of the concept has the full-width light bar automakers have agreed all EVs must have (I’m not sure why it’s ubiquitous, but it is). It also has the tall vertical LED headlights that many EVs have, but automakers such as Porsche are finally phasing out.

Will every new Corolla be an EV?

The Corolla EV debuting at the end of October is just a concept car. It may be a full EV, but it doesn’t represent the production Corolla. And like in the new Lexus ES, we may see Toyota offer multiple Corolla powertrains. But with the Camry’s popularity and mpg, there’s less of a market for compact ICE sedans every year. It may be electrification that brings the compact sedan back—and saves the Corolla.

There’s a reason the Corolla concept looks so much like a Lucid. Optimizing an electric vehicle presents certain inescapable constraints. Lithium-ion batteries are heavy and expensive. The larger you make a vehicle, the larger its battery needs to be to maintain a decent usable range. As the battery gets bigger, the vehicle’s weight and cost go up exponentially. It also takes much longer to charge.

With an 800-volt architecture, this subcompact four-door EV concept could potentially boast a 15-minute charging time for every three hours/150 miles of driving time. It could easily carry four adults and some luggage on a 600-mile, 12-hour road trip, with just three short stops at DC fast chargers. It could also be the cheapest new commuter on the market. These numbers are already completely possible, but you’d have to essentially build a mini Lucid Air to do it.

Toyota is often lauded for its reliable vehicles. The company’s secret is it often waits for any automotive technology to fully mature before it implements it. This sort of charging/driving ratio may have been what it was waiting for before committing the Corolla name to an EV. And the right inexpensive and efficient electric Corolla could sell another 50 million units. You can see Toyota’s teaser video embedded below: