The free-spinning, elastic-band-effect acceleration feel of the car’s powertrain can still be found if you go looking for it under wide throttle applications, but generally the car’s part-throttle responsiveness is much better than you might expect, and its outright performance level a lot more assured.
In its range-topping 2.0-litre hybrid form, it even performs with a bit of sporting edge. It combines a healthy dose of visual style with tangible perceived cabin quality, and like one or two other of its showroom siblings introduced over the past few years, it’s based on a new global model platform and has been dynamically developed and tuned – quite successfully – for distinguishing ride and handling sophistication. Ushered in to replace the ageing Auris in 2019, the Corolla is a game-changer for Toyota in what remains one of the most important market segments of them all. Having spent more than two decades introducing the world to the hybrid powertrain, Toyota is now well advanced with normalising it – and there isn’t a car on sale that does this better than the current Corolla hatchback. However, all of these cars have two important things in common: none comes with a plug socket and all have the potential to offer impressive fuel savings in the sorts of stop/start urban driving environments in which they were designed to flourish. The cars here come in a range of shapes and sizes, with everything from humble superminis to larger crossovers making an appearance. That said, we are being a bit flexible in what we deem to be a hatchback in this list.
2023 Mini Countryman to be built in Germany.