THE first few minutes at the wheel of the Toyota Auris Hybrid are up there with the most terrifying experiences of my motoring life.

As I drove out of the well-lit car park on a frosty winter’s night, the headlights looked a little on the dim side, but once I hit the first unlit stretch of road the full horror hit me. I couldn’t see where I was going.

I pulled over and quickly found the culprit. The heat from the projector-style headlamps had baked on a road salt and spray covering so thick that the light was struggling to get through. A quick wipe with some kitchen roll and we were back in dazzling business.

That business is to extend Toyota’s headline-grabbing technology from the likes of the high priest of hybrids, the like-it-or-loathe-it-styled Prius, to more mainstream models, starting with the quietly competent but altogether more conservatively-created Auris.

Let’s be frank, the Auris is a car unlikely to feature in any schoolboy’s list of top 10 dream cars, and if anyone has a poster of one on their wall they definitely need therapy.

But when you start to coolly assess those less glamorous requirements for a family hatchback — space, practicality, economy, reliability, suddenly it starts ticking all the right boxes.

The cabin of the Auris is comfortably roomy, with plenty of space for five, but a downside of the high technology packed into the car is a loss of space in the boot area, where the nickel-metal hydride battery pack sits. Toyota’s hybrid system seamlessly blends a 1.8-litre petrol engine, a powerful electric motor, generator, high-performance battery, and a device that automatically switches the power sources as required.

Tap the EV (electric vehicle) mode button and the car runs solely off the battery, cutting CO2 and NOx emissions to zero over distances of up to 1.2 miles, at speeds of up to 30mph.

When the car comes to rest, the engine stops automatically to conserve fuel. And when starting up, and running at low to mid-range engine speeds, the vehicle automatically runs in EV mode. Under normal driving conditions, the source and allocation of power is constantly adjusted between the engine and electric motor to achieve the best performance with maximum fuel efficiency.

The Auris Hybrid is built in Derbyshire, using a 1.8-litre petrol engine from Toyota’s engine plant on Deeside, North Wales. That engine and the electric motor generate a maximum 134 horsepower, giving 0-62mph acceleration in 11.4 seconds and a top speed of 112mph.

Externally, the chassis has been slightly lowered and the bodywork has had a few aerodynamic tweaks. In the cabin there are several instruments and controls dedicated to the hybrid power source, but otherwise it looks, feels and behaves much like the standard hatch.

Toyota claims fuel consumption of 70-plus mpg is possible but, in admittedly less than ideal winter conditions, I could only manage to top 50mpg.

In the UK, both versions of the car escape road tax and are exempt from the inner London congestion charge. Globally, Toyota plans to launch about 10 new hybrid models in the next few years and by the early part of the next decade, it aims to offer all its models with Hybrid Synergy Drive, a system designed to be adaptable for use in full-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. With keyless entry, push-button start, leather and Alcantara upholstery, cruise control, Bluetooth, automatic headlamps and wipers and a rear-view camera, the test model Auris Hybrid came superbly equipped, but boy does it badly need a set of headlamp washers.

AUTOFACTS

Price: £20,881

Insurance group: 13E (1-50)

Fuel consumption (Combined): 70.6mpg

Top speed: 112mph

Length: 424.5cm/167.1in

Width: 176cm/69.3in

Luggage capacity: 8.3 cu ft

Fuel tank capacity: 9.9 gallons/45 litres

CO2 emissions: 93g/km

Warranty: 5 years/100,000 miles