We saw the new Toyota Auris debut earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show. Just a couple days ago the curtain was lifted at the New York Auto Show on its American twin, the Toyota Corolla Hatchback. There's another variant we haven't seen yet, at least not officially, and our spy photographers caught up with it today.
This is technically called the Auris TS, and as you can clearly see it's a bit longer than the standard model. This estate version will almost certainly have the same sharp face of new Auris/Corolla, but things get a bit more interesting at the back. Being a wagon, the TS will obviously wear different sheet metal at the back. We can already see the rear doors don't have the same kink upward at the back, but it's quite possible that a similar shape exists under the hypnotic camo wrap still covering the rearmost sections of the car.
We do know it will ride on the same TNGA platform used by the hatchback, which means there will be room for both plug-in hybrid and all-electric powertrains, should Toyota elect to move the estate in that direction. Seeing a fully-electric Auris TS isn't likely anytime soon, but a plug-in hybrid with a 1.8-liter gas engine – just like the one offered in the Prius and C-HR crossover – is a strong possibility. For that fact, so is a 2.0-liter hybrid variant or an old-fashioned 1.2 turbocharged engine with no electric help at all.
What's not likely is a diesel variant, as Toyota seems very uninterested in an oil-burner option these days. It's also quite unlikely the TS will get a stateside release in the Corolla line. With SUVs and crossovers growing by leaps and bounds every day, it seems the days of the station wagon on American roads are coming to a close.
Expect to see the Auris TS revealed for European and Asian markets later this year.
