Toyota's new Yaris

Meet the next Toyota Yaris! These are the first official pictures of the next generation Toyota supermini which will arrive in the UK in September 2011. The pictures show the Japanese market car, which is called the Vitz, but the Yaris will look much the same when it arrives here.

Toyota claims that the newcomer was designed under the words agility and sophistication. As a result, the new supermini features a more angular design than its predecessor, with a more sculpted bumper and pointy headlights adding extra attitude. The Yaris has also been designed to be more efficient, and boasts a competitive coefficient drag value of 0.285.

The new car is 100mm longer than the current car, with the extra 50mm in its wheelbase designed to improve cabin space, particularly in the rear. It’s also a useful 30kg lighter than the outgoing model, thanks to a host of minor weight-saving tweaks like only having one windscreen wiper, and tips the scales at a nice, round 1,000kg.

On the inside, Toyota claims to have improved comfort and refinement thanks to improved seats and better noise insulation. The centrally-mounted speedo has also been ditched in favour of a more conventional dash layout.

The engine range includes two petrol motors: a 68bhp 1.0-litre and a 1.33-litre with 93bhp. The larger engine gets stop start, helping fuel economy climb to 74.9mpg . The Japanese models get a CVT gearbox and even the option of four-wheel drive. However, in the UK the Yaris will be fitted with a manual as standard, and just front-wheel drive will be available.

Toyota FT-Bh

Toyota is exploring how far it can push the boundaries of fuel efficiency with a car that previews the next-generation Yaris. 

The company has revealed the FT-Bh concept, and advanced vehicles project manager Koji Makino told: “I hate exotic materials. Do you buy your Yaris or Aygo in carbon fibre? No: these materials make cars too expensive.”

Extremely low weight, great aerodynamics and a hybrid engine allow this four-seater to claim 134.5mpg and 49g/km CO2 emissions. Add plug-in capability and the CO2 figure drops to only 19g/km.

The production FT-Bh has a proposed retail price of £15,000 and will be made of steel. The target weight is 768kg – that’s 270kg less than a Yaris – and the 1.0-litre, two-cylinder petrol engine weighs only 60kg.

The engine drives a compact version of the new Yaris hybrid’s petrol-electric system, but with an advanced lithium-ion battery. The aerodynamic body has a drag coefficient of 0.235. Cameras replace the mirrors, there are no regular door handles, plus the car has small, efficient air intakes and an aerodynamic rear undertray.

Inside, the FT-Bh is heavily insulated to reduce the energy required to heat up and cool down the cabin. Half the trim is made of plant materials, while the other half is man-made. “Less interior, less thermal capacity, so less to heat up and cool down,” said Makino.

Heat management is a key part of the FT-Bh’s technology. It maintains cabin temperatures with heat-reflective glass and matt white heat-reflective paint.

Even the dashboard is minimised to reduce weight and electricity consumption: it uses an LED-style display made of electrically conductive paper. “As we can’t reduce the weight of the driver, we have to reduce the weight of everything else,” added Makino.

Toyota Yaris 2011

Toyota boldly claims that the new car offers higher interior quality, sharper dynamics and more space than ever, but what instantly grabs you is the new exterior design. The anonymous styling of old has vanished, replaced by a pair of angular headlights, a double concave grille, and subtle chrome trim which all reflect the latest family look.

The newcomer has gone up a size too, as it’s 100mm longer than its predecessor. Half of the extra length has been used to extend the wheelbase, freeing up passenger space, while the rest means that the boot is 25 per cent longer than before. It will swallow a decent 286 litres of luggage.

The existing engine line-up has been carried over, so there are two petrols to choose from - a 1.0-litre three cylinder with 68bhp and the 1.33-litre unit tested here. Completing the line-up is an 89bhp 1.4-litre diesel, which will also be the most efficient version until a hybrid model arrives next summer, emitting just 104g/km of C02.

Of the three, the 1.33-litre petrol is expected to make up around half of all sales, and with 98bhp and 125Nm of torque, there’s enough shove to keep pace with town traffic.

Progress is smooth and hushed at city speeds but, as peak torque arrives at 4,000rpm, the engine note becomes more strained once you reach the motorway. The manual gearbox could be more precise too, and while the optional Multidrive S automatic is smoother, it can get noisy unless you change gears yourself using the steering wheel-mounted paddles.

Toyota’s engineers have focussed on improving the car’s agility, ride and handling balance, and to achieve this plenty of thought has been put into saving weight. So despite going up in size, the new Yaris is 20kg lighter than the outgoing model, with thinner seats, aluminium suspension components, and a stiffer body shell all aiding the slimming process.

European versions also get a bespoke ride and handling setup, with retuned suspension bushes and dampers, and a quicker steering rack to help improve road holding and ride comfort.

Unfortunately the extra attention hasn’t had the desired effect – even on our smooth test route the ride felt firm, bouncing and jarring over imperfections. The electrically-assisted steering is light and easy to use, but provides little feedback, and the chassis gets flustered easily by quick changes in direction.

On the inside, the newly driver-oriented cabin and simple, unfussy dash layout marks a big step forward, with an integrated touchscreen system at the heart of the design. It’s an impressive piece of kit, and features Bluetooth, a reversing camera and picture viewer as standard on all but the base-spec car.