Toyota Yaris Hybrid Review & Prices

The Toyota Yaris Hybrid is one of the best small cars out there. It’s a dinky hatchback, powered exclusively by hybrid engines and benefits from Toyota’s decades of experience in this field. However, unlike Yarises of old, hybrid doesn’t mean staid and boring - this latest model has a sporty design, plenty of pep and an altogether more youthful style to it.

Think of it like a 50s bungalow that’s had all the tufted Wilton carpet and peeling pink wallpaper stripped out of it. It keeps all the bits that make it a Yaris, but updates its looks and features to make it more appealing to a modern audience.

It’s fair to say that if you’re looking at a Yaris you’re probably considering a Peugeot 208 or a Volkswagen Polo, but the meat of the competition for the Yaris are hybrid versions of the Renault Clio and the Honda Jazz. Both offer something different to the Toyota, but all promise low running costs from their part-petrol, part-electric engines.

The Yaris was facelifted in early 2024, though the updates aren’t immediately obvious. On the outside, the changes are limited to new alloy wheels and some new paint finishes, including bi-tone models with a black roof. Inside, there’s a bit more of a change - Yarises now get an up-to-date infotainment system, the option of a digital instrument cluster and a whole raft of new safety equipment.

There’s also a choice of powertrain. Carried over from the pre-facelift car is a 115hp system, but now you can have a more powerful 130hp hybrid engine. They’re both based around the same 1.5-litre petrol, but the 130 model trades a tiny bit of fuel economy for a chunk of extra performance - it’s much more comparable now to the 140hp Renault Clio E-Tech hybrid.

Regardless of which you choose, the Yaris is actually pretty great to drive. The hybrid engine does leave you a little detached from the driving experience, but it’s totally smooth, pretty quiet and tremendously efficient. Fling the Yaris into a series of bends and you’ll find it corners really nicely, too.

The changes don’t make the Yaris any more roomy inside - it’s still pretty tight in the back seats, and the boot has a modest 286-litre capacity. Despite the new infotainment system it’s still quite dark and gloomy inside too, though it does all feel screwed together with the sort of reassuring solidity that you hope for from a Toyota.

Still, compared to the palatial and stylish Renault Clio or Honda Jazz, there’s no denying that the Toyota Yaris lags behind when it comes to interior ambiance.

The Yaris’s five-strong trim level line-up has a higher starting price than most alternatives, but that reflects the hybrid engine as well as pretty generous levels of equipment. Even the entry-level Icon car has 16-inch alloy wheels, a 9.0-inch touchscreen, climate control, and wireless smartphone integration. Heading all the way up to the top Premiere Edition model brings a JBL sound system, 10.5-inch touchscreen and a wireless smartphone charger.

If this little hybrid hatch sounds like the car for you, then head on over to our Toyota Yaris deals page to see how much you can save when you buy through carwow, or browse used examples from a network of trusted dealers. You can also check out deals on other new Toyotas and if you need to sell your car before buying another, you can do that through carwow.

The Yaris has a higher entry price than alternatives such as the Volkswagen Polo or Renault Clio. However, it’s comparable when you consider that it’s well-equipped as standard, and that its hybrid engine is a match for an automatic Polo, or the Renault Clio E-Tech. 

It’s worth pointing out that the entry-level Yaris is also comparatively very well-equipped. As standard it gets handy features such as a reversing camera and adaptive cruise control, a proper climate control system and snazzy 16-inch alloy wheels. Often you’ll have to pay extra for features such as these on other small hatchbacks, so they help to justify the higher starting price too.

The Toyota Yaris is comfortable and economical in town but feels less at home on faster roads

In town

Toyota’s offering a choice of hybrid engine with the Yaris. Both are based around the same 1.5-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine, but you can choose between a 115hp or a 130hp variant.

They both drive the front wheels through a CVT automatic, which makes for smooth, stepless power delivery around town. That makes it really comfortable to drive, almost like an electric car.

While you can force the car into its ‘EV’ mode, it’s best to stick to one of the normal driving modes and simply let the car decide when to deploy the petrol engine, the electric motor, or both. If you can’t tell by the noise, a little light on the dashboard tells you when the car’s running on electricity. You’ll notice that it does it a lot - when it’s creeping through traffic, when it’s decelerating and pretty often under light throttle loads. Driven thus you’ll notice exceptional fuel economy.

The rest of the car makes town driving easy, too. The suspension does a good job of soaking up most bumps, though it’s firmer on cars with larger alloy wheels or in the GR Sport trim level, which gets sportier suspension. The steering is pretty light and accurate, and parking’s easy too thanks to a standard-fit reversing camera.

On the motorway

You’ll notice the Yaris’s engine revving up pretty high when you’re joining on a fast sliproad or pulling out to make an overtake - however, it’s not an unpleasant sound like the last-generation car was, so it’s far from unbearable. On the motorway the additional power afforded by the 130hp engine is nice to have, but even the 115hp version doesn’t feel out of its depth. 

The short wheelbase means it’s a little bouncy, though, and overall a Renault Clio or Volkswagen Polo are more relaxing for a long journey.

Lane Assist and Adaptive Cruise Control also come as standard on every model in the range which is pretty unusual at this level. Respectively, these systems will help to automatically position your car within its lane, and maintain a set speed and distance between you and the car in front of you when you’re cruising on the motorway.

On a twisty road

On a twisting B-road it’s best to once again let the Yaris do its own thing with regards to the engine. The CVT does mean the engine revs don’t necessarily correspond to the road speed, but that’s made up for with rather sweet steering and tidy cornering.

Its comparatively small size and short wheelbase means it feels nimble, and it grips well making for a pretty good level of driver enjoyment. It’s more fun than the roly-poly Honda Jazz, and at least as agile as a Renault Clio. 

By the way, don’t get confused between this normal Yaris and the sporty Toyota GR Yaris. The latter may look similar, but it’s a totally different car underneath - we’ve reviewed it separately here.

The Yaris's boot is surprisingly spacious given its relatively small capacity, but the interior isn't particularly fancy to look at and the rear seats are cramped

The Toyota Yaris’s interior isn’t that fancy to look at, but it feels good and everything’s where you need it to be. Highlights include gloss black trim on the centre console and classy-feeling fabric on the doors, and everything feels nicely built, but cars such as the Peugeot 208 feel far funkier inside.

The main focus of the dashboard is the large touchscreen, which looks a bit ‘plonked on’, but Toyota has had the good sense to keep the climate controls separate. Depending on which size of touchscreen you have, you get a slightly different design of centre console - the larger unit comes paired with a wireless phone charger ahead of the gear lever, while the 9.0-inch touchscreen has a phone-sized shelf underneath it reserving the area in front of the gear lever for odds and ends instead.

The door pockets, meanwhile, are big enough to take a 1.5-litre bottle, and if you’re extra thirsty, one of those will fit in the glovebox, too. There’s also a tray to store your phone under the central armrest, and ahead of that there’s a couple of cupholders that will take a coffee cup or small bottle of water. The armrest does foul the cupholders, though. Space up front for passengers is pretty good as well, and the driving position is adjustable enough for people of all shapes and sizes to get comfortable.

Icon and Design cars come with standard seats in cloth, but Excel models get figure-hugging sports seats in fabric and synthetic leather, which helps lift the cabin. The GR Sport version gets the option of suede-effect seats with seat heating. All cars get a leather steering wheel and gear lever, though.

Space in the back seats

Whether the Yaris will be roomy enough in the back will depend on how tall your passengers will be. For children, there's more than enough space on offer, though taller teens and adults may be left wanting for a bit more space on longer trips. Those in the two outer seats will likely find their knees rubbing the backs of the front seats, and anyone forced to sit in the middle will feel like no one likes them, because they’ll be cramped and uncomfortable, such is the shortage of both legroom and headroom.

There’s also space for a rear-facing child seat in the back, although you’ll need to slide the front seat forward as much as possible to get it in there. You’re also guaranteed to lose the covers for the Isofix mounting points. Rear-seat passengers also don't enjoy niceties like USB charging ports, door bins or air vents.

Boot space

On paper, the Yaris has the smallest boot of any city-based hatchback, at just 286 litres. For reference, the Volkswagen Polo and Skoda Fabia dwarf this with their respective boot sizes of 351 litres and 380 litres, and the Honda Jazz (which, like the Yaris, is hybrid-only) has 304 litres of boot space.

But wait! Strange things are afoot. You see, we managed to get five carry-on suitcases into the boot of the Yaris, which is exactly the same as the number we got into the Polo. Toyota has clearly learned how to bend physics.

The Yaris also comes with a height-adjustable boot floor, which means there’s no load lip to speak of, and when you fold down the rear seats they lie flush with the boot floor. There are also two handy shopping bag hooks to stop your take-away from sliding around on the way home.

You don't get built-in sat-nav on the Yaris, but Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem

All models have a central touchscreen. On Icon models it’s a lovely big 9.0-inch set-up with Bluetooth, DAB radio and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Upgrade to Excel trim and you get an even bigger 10.5-inch display. Both are crisp and clear, though they're not quite as easy to use as the system on a Volkswagen Polo and we wish they had a sort of homescreen on which you could land to see more than one piece of information at a glance.

New for 2024 is the option of digital dials. On Icon and Design models, you get a 7.0-inch screen flanked by a couple of LCD readouts, while Excel, GR Sport and Premier Edition cars get a full 12.3-inch setup with several display options. It's pretty slick, though once again we find the system in the Volkswagen Polo easier to read. It's through this driver display that you have to access many of the car's safety functions, too - which is difficult, as to save space they're almost all condensed into acronyms. You might need to delve into the manual a couple of times before you can tell your LKSS from your DRCC.

Automatic air conditioning is standard across the range, with dual zone air con on the Excel and GR Sport models, while there are also auto lights and auto wipers. GR Sport versions also get plenty of 'GR Sport' badges to remind you you bought the sportier-looking one.

There are two overriding impressions of the interior of the Yaris, one good and one bad - the quality of the build, and the dourness of the materials. Everything feels beautifully screwed-together, without a single rattle or creak to be found, which is more than we can say for a few luxury cars. But it's very dark and dingy, with ugly textured grey plastics forming much of the dashboard. While there are some soft-touch surfaces, annoyingly both the top of the door and the thinly upholstered armrest are rock-solid so there isn't really anywhere comfy to rest your elbow.

Every Yaris Hybrid model gets the same 1.5-litre petrol-hybrid engine that meets the latest Euro 6 emissions standards and should return around 60mpg between trips to the pumps, depending on which model you buy. There's not much of a penalty in opting for the more powerful 130hp version, either - officially, it returns 67.3mpg to the 115hp's 70.6mpg. In practice during mixed driving we saw 64mpg and 66mpg respectively, which are both very impressive figures and higher than you'll see from a Renault Clio Hybrid or Honda Jazz.

The Yaris excels around town, where it can make the most of its regenerative braking and all-electric capability. You'll likely see slightly lower fuel economy on a long motorway run, though this should still be in the high 50s unless you're really tanking it.

CO2 emissions are correspondingly low, at 91g/km for the 115hp engine and just 96g/km for the 130. That means company car tax rates that are as cheap as they come without spending more money on a plug-in hybrid car - all models fall into the 23 or 24 per cent tax bracket. You also get very reasonable first-year VED.

Toyota doesn’t beat around the bush with the Yaris Hybrid saying that it was engineered to be the world’s safest compact car with a host of safety systems as standard.

Lane Assist and Emergency Steering Assist are standard while the functionality of the Pre-Collision System can now detect pedestrians by day and night and cyclists in daytime. There is also something Toyota calls Intersection Turn Assistance, which can recognise collision risks when making turns at a junction. It’s also the first Toyota to be fitted with centre airbags between the driver and passenger to prevent them hitting each other in a side impact.

When it was put through Euro NCAP's crash tests, it achieved a full five stars under the 2020 protocol, which is reassuring.

The Yaris Hybrid wears a Toyota badge, so you’ve come to the wrong place to ask about reliability – it runs through the car like a stick of seaside rock. Toyota's hybrid system may be complex, but it's proved itself incredibly dependable over the years. Just take a look at the number of Priuses operating as taxis, racking up 500,000+ miles on their original battery packs like it's nothing.

As if the badge wasn't reassurance enough that nothing will go wrong, you also get the peace of mind that comes with the best warranty in the business. The Yaris Hybrid gets a three-year warranty as standard, but this can be extended by one year/10,000 miles up to a maximum of 10 years/100,000 miles with annual Toyota servicing.

There was a recall in November 2021 for the emergency calling system (eCall), which required a software update and affected 26,575 cars, as well as a smaller recall in 2023 to re-torque the wheel bolts of some models.