Launched in 1966, the Toyota Corolla is today one of the greatest symbols of the Japanese brand and reached another milestone in its long history: reached the incredible number of 50 million units sold.
To give you an idea, this means that, since the Corolla was launched, an average of more than 900,000 units/year have been sold — it is the best-selling car ever and by a comfortable margin (considering all its generations).
With sales going from “sweet” — in 2020 it was “only” the best-selling car in the world, with 1 134 262 units —, the Corolla has everything to increase, for many years to come, these numbers, using its own adaptive gifts that have long been characteristic of him.
An automobile “chameleon”
The adaptability we are talking about simply refers to the ability that Corolla has had throughout its history to adapt to the ever-increasing demands of the market.
Born as a small rear-wheel-drive sedan, the Corolla has since been almost everything from a hatchback, liftback, estate, minivan and, more recently, as an SUV (remember the Corolla Cross?). Rear-wheel drive has also been forgotten in the past and is now assumed to be a front-wheel drive.
Already with twelve generations, the Toyota Corolla is sold in around 150 countries and is currently produced in 12 of them. Out of curiosity, the first country to which the Japanese model was exported was Australia, taking advantage of the geographical proximity between the two countries.
To scale up the success of the Japanese model, the also successful Volkswagen Golf, which has only eight years less on the market than the Corolla, has yet to reach the 40 million units sold mark (again, counting all of them generations).
Throughout its history, it has not only been a success in the market, but also has a long presence in the world of competition. Not only did it compete on asphalt in touring events, it also thrived on rallies (it gave Toyota the WRC constructors title in 1999).
More recently, its involvement in motorsport also serves as a “test bench” for new technologies, with the greatest example of this being the hydrogen-powered Toyota Corolla that competed in this year's NAPAC Fuji Super TEC 24 Hours.