Test drive: Toyota Yaris 2020, unbeatable in the city

Just a few weeks ago, Toyota presented in Spain the new Toyota Yaris 2020, a hybrid city car that, in its fourth generation, is making a strong impact.

This new Yaris 2020 stands out for its improved driving feel, a design with a lot of personality, a hybrid engine that averages 3.8 litres per 100 km, and a comprehensive safety equipment list. After getting our first impressions of the Japanese car at its presentation in Madrid, we are going to delve into the aspects we were able to test thoroughly, over one week.

Very personal design

The evolution in the design of the Toyota Yaris is obvious, especially when we look at its first generations, or how the third generation evolved with its restyling. But the brand has gone one step further with this generation, creating a very personal, fresh and sporty model.

On the outside it exudes energy and dynamism, and in addition it increases the wheelbase to gain interior space (new platform). Add to this pronounced wheel arches, an aggressive front end with full LED headlights as the highlight, or the rear with its strongly defined light bar, and the end result is a very eye-catching city car. The two-tone paint (black vinyl roof) is exclusive to the launch edition, but it is a real success.

More spacious interior

With a longer wheelbase, the Japanese have gained interior space and the front seats have been lowered, creating a lower, more upright driving position. In addition, the new A-pillar design allows better front-side visibility, which is noticeable from behind the wheel.

The interior is practical, with everything within easy reach, highlighting the steering wheel buttons from which we can navigate the on-board computer, operate the multimedia system or switch off the unintentional lane-change assistant.

The new steering wheel and driving position are noticeable, ergonomically it is comfortable and we took little time to get used to it. In the first few metres behind the wheel, it is easy to get comfortable and the position is pleasant, even when we have to cover many kilometres.

Another element that adds an extra touch of comfort is the head-up display, complete, full-colour and very practical so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road.

In the front seats the feeling is one of spaciousness, closer to that of a compact than a city car, with decent materials and plenty of cubbies for leaving small objects around the cabin (a detail worth noting).

In the rear seats more space has been gained; they are still city-car seats, but they offer a fair level of comfort and space, the rear doors allow easy access and only the opening angle is the detail to improve, in otherwise decent seats.

The boot has a capacity of 286 litres, with a false floor, ideal for storing smaller objects in its deepest part.

1.5 Dynamic Force engine: radical performance improvement and minimal consumption

One of the areas that has been completely renewed is the hybrid system (now fourth generation). The 1.5 engine (TNGA) is now three-cylinder, delivering 93 CV (combined with the hybrid system it makes 116 CV) and improves its performance, reducing real-world consumption to just 3.8 litres per 100 km.

The electrical system has also been renewed, with a more powerful and lighter lithium-ion battery that provides greater support to the engine, allowing it to travel at up to 130 km/h in electric mode. The power unit is also new, more compact and efficient, as is the new chassis, which has greater rigidity and a lower centre of gravity.

Behind the wheel of the new Toyota Yaris 2020

All the previous theory about the new engine, new batteries or chassis translates, behind the wheel, into a different kind of driving from what we had seen in earlier Yaris models: more power, more savings, more comfort.

The first thing we notice when pressing the accelerator is more refinement; the revving engine is not so audible (a hallmark of the brand’s hybrids and of the previous Yaris Hybrid), and we also have more strength; you can feel the horsepower.

The electric motor works for longer periods in town or on the road; in fact, its ideal habitat is traffic jams, where we can achieve really low consumption (in town, depending on traffic, you can avoid exceeding 3 litres per 100 km).

It has the following modes: Power, ECO and Normal (plus EV if the battery has charge), and in the most powerful mode, although the engine has to rev higher, once it starts to respond it does so with force, a very favourable aspect that radically improves responsiveness compared with the previous generation.

Overall, the comfort on board is high, especially in town or on the road; it only worsens on motorways because of the aerodynamic noise that seeps into the cabin (but within the norm for the segment).

Dynamically it surprises, with more than adequate composure both in corners and on motorways, not being a sports car but responding nobly to steering inputs. Driving is fun and comfortable; we must be aware that we are driving a hybrid and that when we ask for power it is an engine that has to rev higher, but it responds.

Comprehensive safety equipment

The Yaris 2020 is one of the few cars on the market and the second in the city-car segment to equip the central airbag, a kind of side airbag but between the two front seats. On top of this, as standard, there is the set of assistants Toyota Safety Sense (collision braking, pedestrian detection at crossings, lane-keeping system and cruise control with sign recognition).

I particularly liked the cruise control with traffic sign detection, because on some brands, being adaptive and reading traffic signs, it only adjusts speed to whatever the road signs indicate (or what it thinks it has read on that road), leading to scares such as dropping from 120 km/h to 60 km/h for no reason or due to a misreading by the system. This Yaris does not; it handles that problem better by inviting us to accept the new limit read from a sign, and if we want it to adjust automatically we just press a button on the steering wheel and that’s it.

Among the optional extras is the blind-spot detector for the mirror, rear cross-traffic alert and the automatic braking from the parking sensors. I want to dwell on this last one, since now when we park, in addition to seeing through the rear camera, there are the sensors, and when we reach the red zone (with the corresponding beep) if we don’t brake, the car brakes for us.

I thought that pressing the brake would deactivate that braking, but it does not; so if we park squeezing into a tight space and lightly press the brake to go slowly, as soon as we reach the closest point and the continuous beep sounds, the car will brake on its own (and it does so abruptly). It may be useful for an absent-minded person, but not for someone used to squeezing into gaps in cities.

Consumption of the Toyota Yaris 2020

The homologated figure is an average consumption of just 3.8 litres per 100 km, and the truth is that the figure is realistic, because in mixed urban-road driving it is very easy to hover around 3.8-3.9 litres per 100 km, without being especially careful with the pedal.

On the road the figure rises to 4.3 litres per 100 km and on the motorway it settles at 5.3 litres per 100 km. Its best consumption is in urban areas, where it can even hover around 3 litres per 100 km.

Price of the Toyota Yaris 2020 and range

The Yaris 2020 range is offered in the following trims: Active Tech, Style, Style Premiere Edition and Business Plus (a special version designed for fleets). Even the base trim already includes the Toyota Safety Sense (with pre-collision system that detects pedestrians and cyclists, traffic sign recognition, automatic high beams, unintentional lane-change warning, among others). It also comes as standard with a central airbag between the front seats (one of the few city cars on the market to include this airbag).

Our unit, the Style Premiere Edition, in addition to its eye-catching two-tone colour, stands out for equipment such as the eight-speaker JBL sound system (decent but lacking bass), a blind-spot monitor for the mirror, a 10-inch full-colour head-up display, among other systems.

The starting price of the new Toyota Yaris 2020 is 18,650 euros for the Active Tech trim, 19,400 euros for the Style and 21,350 euros for the Premiere Edition.

Personal opinion on the Toyota Yaris 2020

This fourth generation of the Japanese city car makes us forget about an electric one, creating a very urban car that still lets you venture onto the motorway without fear, with extremely low consumption and an engine that offers some fun touches behind the wheel.

It is not simply a vehicle for getting from point A to point B; they have improved the driving feel in this generation, and it shows. All this with a personal and eye-catching exterior, as well as a correct interior that is well equipped in terms of safety (it has even achieved the five stars in Euro NCAP 2020).

Photos | Diego G. Moreira and Toyota Spain

Technical specifications of this car

HatchbackToyota Yaris9 versions · from 24,550 €