Hybrid-only! Toyota Corolla, Yaris and Yaris Cross to ditch petrol, so say goodbye to the sub-$30K Toyota passenger car

Toyota is saying goodbye to its cheapest passenger variants as it abandons sales of petrol-only offerings of its smallest models.

The Toyota Corolla and Yaris hatchbacks - excluding the GR Yaris hot hatch - join the Yaris Cross small SUV and Camry sedan as models available only as hybrids.

The Corolla sedan as well as the GR Corolla and GR Yaris hot hatches will remain with petrol engines.

The cheapest hybrid Toyota available at current prices is the Yaris Cross GX at $30,000 before on-road costs, which means that only one Toyota passenger car remains available for less than that: the petrol-powered Corolla Ascent Sport Sedan at $29,270.

This means that aside from base model HiLuxes, Toyota no longer offers a car that can be driven away at less than $30K new.

The news was announced by Toyota Australia Vice President of Sales and Marketing Sean Hanley at the media launch of the second-generation Toyota C-HR, which is available only as a hybrid.

It signals that the Japanese brand is looking to further cement its place as the hybrid leader in the new-car market, with hybrids making up just over 40 per cent of its sales in 2024 so far.

Toyota has sold more than 402,300 hybrid cars in Australia over the last couple of decades since the introduction of the technology - via the discontinued Prius - with 75 per cent of those having been in the last five years.

While Hanley cited market preferences as the reason for the move, he did admit it meant the brands smallest cars would be less affordable without the petrol-only models on offer, but said other factors were also increasing new-car prices like safety requirements and shipping costs.