Toyota has unveiled the first of a series of electric vehicles (EVs) it plans to bring to the U.S. over the next several years. It’s a compact SUV known as the 2023 Toyota bZ4x – a mouthful, but one Americans should get used to, as it kicks off a sub-brand of “beyond zero” electric cars that should all start with the bZ moniker.
It was developed with Subaru, who will be selling a vehicle built on the same platform as the 2023 Subaru Solterra.
The version Toyota showed off to reporters goes on sale soon in Japan. We expect a U.S. version in the next few months, and it will likely be almost the same. We expect it to reach dealerships around the middle of 2022.
Toyota hasn’t revealed pricing. Automakers are bringing out a number of small electric crossovers in 2022 – such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 –and none have official prices yet. We expect most of them to start in the low $40,000s, but we’ve seen some volatility in EV pricing lately. The best-selling electric SUV in the country – the Tesla Model Y – has seen its price rise from $39,000 to nearly $59,000 in about two years since it was first announced. Stay tuned for price details.
RAV4-Sized and Sleek
The bZ4x is a compact SUV similar in size to the RAV4 crossover – Toyota’s best-selling vehicle. But if Toyota wanted to build an electric RAV4, they would have. The bZ4 x is visibly a new design direction for the company.
The front end is sharp. Electric cars don’t need grilles. Some manufacturers build a false one to make their cars look like what shoppers are used to seeing, but Toyota has emphasized the bZ4x’s difference with a grille-less pinched metal nose. The front fenders are black regardless of what color the buyer chooses, looking like a sleeker version of the black plastic protection many off-road-oriented SUVs wear.
The car’s sides have several subtle character lines that make it look more angular in low lighting and seem to disappear in bright sunlight.
Tesla-Style Steering Yoke
Inside, though, is where designers worked hardest to make the bZ4x feel distinct from Toyota’s gas and hybrid lineup.
The most obvious difference is the optional steering yoke. It looks like something pilots might expect. Earlier this year, Tesla made the same move with its Model S sedan, but Toyota’s version operates differently.
The Tesla yoke rotates 2.3 full turns. That has required a big adjustment from some drivers since it means turning hand-over-hand with few areas to grip. Toyota’s version only turns 150 degrees from side to side, meaning the driver never has to take a hand from the wheel. Toyota will offer a traditional wheel for those who aren’t crazy about the change. Both operate entirely electronically, with no mechanical connection to the wheels. Toyota says that eliminates vibration from the road.
That’s not the only new design element to the cabin. The driver’s instrument bezel is a digital screen open to the top, not hidden in the built-in shade drivers are used to. Toyota is relying on the screen to counteract glare. No one in the press has driven the bZ4x yet, so we can’t tell you how well it works. But it does lend a sense of space to the dashboard.
If there’s a theme to the bZ4x’s cabin, it’s space. Electric cars keep almost all of their moving parts under the floor, with no need for a transmission tunnel down the center of the seats. That means that even a small SUV can have the cargo space of a large one.
Toyota says the bZ4x is as wide as a large sedan, with “class-leading legroom for front and rear seats.”
Curiously, the bZ4x uses radiant floor heating rather than warm air through the vents to warm the cabin in winter.
Two Powertrain Options
The bZ4x will come in front-wheel drive (FWD) or all-wheel drive (AWD) editions.
FWD models get a single motor attached to the front axle making 201 horsepower. AWD versions get a motor on the front wheels and a second on the rear wheels. But there’s not a big power boost. AWD models make 215 horsepower.
Toyota says the AWD version will do 0-to-60 in 7.7 seconds – respectable, but nothing like the instant power of many other electric cars.
The bZ4x is rated for up to 310 miles of driving on the Japanese testing cycle, but American EPA testing routinely reveals shorter ranges. Toyota says it replenishes 80 percent of its battery in just 30 minutes with a DC fast charger.
An optional solar roof helps to extend that range, charging even when parked. But Toyota says only that it adds the equivalent of 1,800 km (1,118 miles) of driving distance per year, with no details on how long you’d have to leave it parked in the sun to get a full battery out of it.
The King of Hybrids Goes Electric
Toyota has dominated sales of hybrid cars – as much as Tesla has dominated sales of EVs. But Japan’s largest automaker hasn’t joined the EV race until now (apart from a small number of electric RAV4s sold briefly in California until 2014). Nearly a quarter of Toyota and Lexus sales so far in 2021 have been hybrids. But the bZ4x is meant to launch a new line of electric Toyotas, so we expect to bring news of more in the coming months.
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November 01, 2021 at 10:30PM
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Toyota bZ4x Electric SUV – Solar Roof, Tesla-Style Steering Yoke - Kelley Blue Book
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