John Kendall tests out the Toyota Corolla Commercial.

The Corolla Commercial is built at Toyota’s Burnaston plant alongside the Corolla Hatchback and Touring Sports

Price OTR: £24,003 Payload 425kg Economy: 55.6-61.4mpg CO2 emissions: 105g/km On fleet: 85.5mpg

After driving the Corolla Commercial at its recent launch, we wanted to see how the promise of the Toyota petrol/electric hybrid powertrain stands up as an alternative to diesel.

As we pointed out at the time, the Corolla Commercial is well equipped with a range of safety and convenience items as standard. About the only things that might be missed are parking sensors, although there is a reversing camera as standard (just don’t wait for the beeps, the noise you would hear won’t be quite so reassuring). There’s no sat-nav either, but with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, plug your phone in and it does the job just as well with minimal data consumption.

So far, we’re impressed. It would serve any fleet where small loads are the norm and a car-like driving experience a bonus. A bit like the Readypower Group, which has just taken on 45 Corolla Commercials to replace a diesel-powered fleet.

I’m getting between 59 and 60mpg regularly, including some long motorway trips. With petrol significantly less than diesel at the moment, that’s quite an incentive. The suspension is a bit on the soft side but that makes it a comfortable motorway cruiser.