In front of the driver is a new column-mounted screen, which acts as a traditional driver’s display. Here, not only driving data and speed can be shown, but potentially navigation and other road information, too. On either side of this main screen are two further interfaces that control elements like the media, air-conditioning and other core driving functions.
The passenger’s screen has a larger display designed to project media or access elements like the navigation. If there’s no passenger in the seat, the screen will seamlessly disappear into the dash, creating a cleaner and less distracting environment for the driver.
Scott said: “Could we, at least from a design point of view change [the interior experience]? How are we going to give a focused environment for the driver, but also a contrast to a relaxed, open one for the passenger? We can go beyond just displays, and do things like change the seats, give drivers and passengers a different experience. We’re really pushing for it.”
Between the front seats sits a sort of pedestal, which houses the start button and a drive selector. While this sort of minimalism is nice to look at, we can imagine this being more of a multi-use platform in a production car, with cup-holders, a wireless phone charger and storage for other small items.
What’s under the bonnet?
With such a widespread audience and the scale to back it up, Toyota’s next Corolla will be available in ICE, PHEV and EV forms, with no difference in the car’s proportions, practicality or driving dynamics. This tells us that the future production model will be based on a flexible platform that’s capable of housing batteries under the floor for an EV variant, and fitting a small ICE powertrain – likely hybrid – under the bonnet.
While this does sound like a compromise, it’s one that other manufacturers have had success with, and helps keep the model in line with global demand, even if that shifts within the model’s life-cycle.
Will Toyota be able to build something like this?
It might be easy to brush off this car’s more eccentric elements as concept car bling, but this is very much a dry run for the next-generation model to receive feedback from both media and customers before it goes into production.
An added bonus of having such potentially high sales figures for the new Corolla is that Toyota can invest in new engineering solutions to meet the demands of its customers, giving me plenty of faith that the car we’ll actually see might just look half as cool as this new concept.
“This is what the design team wants to express,” said Scott. “Nowadays, the engineers are very open to really challenging themselves, and achieving what the designers are looking for.”
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