This Toyota BZ4X is their first full Battery Electric EV
It’s got a confusing name and an even more confusing identity
So we’re going to break down the highlights both good and bad of this BZ4X
This is first EV from the biggest company that doesn’t seem to have any interest in EVs
In fact Akiyo Toyoda has stepped down as CEO recently in the wake of the global push to EV
He remains on the board, but firmly believes that hybrid and Plug-Ins are still a viable solution
So is the BZ4X an exercise in appeasement of regulators?
Well were here to talk the best and the rest…let’s start with the rest
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Bad:
1 – seating position
I get in and I’m sitting too high
I crank the seat down as much as I can and I’m still sitting too high
So then I go to adjust the steering wheel. I get it to where I want and then it’s compeletely blocking the gauge cluster.
So I try to put it up a little higher but it won’t go any higher.
So now I’m sitting too high and the steering wheel has been adjusted to the point it’s sitting in my lap AND I STILL CANT SEE THE WHOLE CLUSTER!
Wtf is this design?! Is it so they didn’t have to pay for a cluster and a HUD? It’s awful! And I thought the Tacoma seating position was bad
2 – torque steer
Have you ever heard of torque steer in an EV? Well you have now. Every time I floor it the car pulls right. Doesn’t do it while coasting it’s only at high load. I can understand torque steer in a Porsche taycan but this is 200 hp!
3 – no volume knob
Annoying but not the end of the world. HOWEVER it is when you only have a toggle on the wheel and two buttons on the center screen and there’s no way to mute with one touch….
4 – wireless charger
It’s got a lid so you can’t see it so every time I put it in there I forgot my phone and was running around the house looking for it
Also if you have one of the bigger phones it’s not going to fit very well
5 – Range
The range we have to talk about and it has to be either in the good or bad category
Now in this FWD equipped car the range is fairly competitive at 252 miles HOWEVER when you option dual motor AWD your range drops to 228 miles
And the only competitor with less range in the MachE AWD WITHOUT the bigger battery
So not super impressive in terms of range
Then in terms of charging the FWD and AWD actually get different battery packs from different suppliers so in this FWD pack it’ll accept 150Kw but if you go for the AWD it’ll only accept 100Kw
10-80% in about 40 minutes for FWD, about 50 min for AWD
OR if you charge at home on level 2 it’ll be between 10 and 11 hours
6 – No Frunk
This is surprising to me because this is Toyota’s dedicated e-TNGA EV chassis so you would think there would be at least a little frunk
The EV6 and Ioniq5 on eGMP have pretty uselessly small frunks but at least there;s room for the charging cables
Weird that there’s no frunk at all on the BZ4X
7 – The name
We’re used to seeing alpha numeric names from cars like McLaren, but not from Toyota
I don’t really like that this doesn’t have a more conventional name, but there is a purpose
BZ stands for Beyond Zero…as in emissions
Toyota isn’t targeting carbon neutral with these cars, but carbon negative which is a good mission for a car like this
But then we get to the 4X part of the name…both of which i would assume individually refer to AWD or 4WD
But no, i think the 4 is to signify size within the lineup and I don’t really know what the X is
8 – Trunk space
The trunk opening is nice and large and it LOOKS fairly good size
HOWEVER, someone looking at this is probably coming for a RAV4 hybrid or PRIME and this trunk is 10 cuft smaller than the Rav4 due to the tapered aero-efficient roof
9 – 1 pedal drive
Toyota doesn’t call it 1 pedal drive, they call it something like regen BOOST
And it does do that, but it won’t actually bring you to a stop like you’d get in other EVs
Additionally, there are no incremental levels of regen that you can cycle through like you’d get on an EV6 or Ioniq5
So it ends up just being more resistance and regen while you still need to use your brake pedal
10 – Towing
This may be another one of those things that a very small percentage of people actually want to do with their BZ4X
But officially, Toyota has said said they do not recommend towing with this thing at all
And if you were coming from a RAV4 or even the CRV we drove last week that had 1,000 lbs capacity
It’s not huge but at least you had the option so no towing seems odd here
11 – No glove box
If you’re like me you probably don’t use your glove box that much from day-to-day
So maybe this isn’t a big deal to you
HOWEVER, my glovebox holds all my important documentation like registration etc and with no glove box now i have to store those things in my center cubby which is where i keep things i use on a more regular basis and the important documents are more likely to get damaged
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So i know we covered a lot of negatives and some of those may be nit picks specific to me but there are some really good things going on here as well so let’s talk about those
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1 – Price and packagaing
As a package it’s pretty good bang for your buck.
In the XLE FWD trim we have here the only less expensive competitor is the VW ID4…which I don’t like, and if you don’t want to take my word for it the ID4 is missing a bunch of stuff you get on this BZ4X like a heat pump and all your screens are smaller, and the VW infotainment is a tragedy
2 – Looks
I’m kinda lukewarm about the looks personally, but I put range on the bad list so maybe this evens it out a bit
The front end i feel looks very Lexus
Toyota calls it their hammerhead design
I like the LED headlights and the body colored flares above them
I’ma lot less keen on the dark gray metallic wheel arch pieces
But i do like the charge port is near the front of the car on the driver side
Makes sense for my garage situation
The lines on the profile looks as if someone grabbed the car like a sub and squished it…but i weirdly don’t mean that as a negative
Of course it’s got the tapered EV roofline and more gray nonsense on the back wheel
And then the rear looks like a tall prius to me
And what is with all that black plastic diffuser
Overall I think it looks ok
3 – Efficiency
This BZ4X ends up being hundreds of lbs lighter than a lot of its competitors which means it’ll handle a little better
But it also means there’s less weight to lug around which means it’s more efficient
I’ve been getting around 3.6 miles per KwH which is near the top of the segment..and that’s without the skinny ice skate tires they put on the MachE
4 – Heat pump
Especially here in WI in February it’s more important to have a heat pump so the cabin climate controls dont eat into your range so much
There are other EVs that come with a heat pump, but even in a lot of those it’s an option you have to spec or you need to go with AWD
So to have a heat pump as standard across the whole range is great to have here
5 – the drive
On paper this BZ4X doesn’t sound like much
201 hp and 196 lbft for this FWD
214 hp and 248 lbft for AWD
These aren’t the EV power figures we’re used to seeing in headlines
However, it’s till plenty quick for what this thing is as it’ll do 0-60 in about 6 seconds for the AWD..close to 7 in the FWD
But the rest of the driving experience is pretty Toyota
It’s not super complex or performance oriented, this one doesn’t even have a sport mode button
But it’s just easy
The ride is soft and supple
The steering is light enough but not totally dead
The visibility is great…as long as you don’t need to see your gauge cluster
It’s just easy to get on with
6 – the tech
Toyota is doing well lately with their new infotainment suite
We first saw it in the Tundra and it was really nice
The screen is a huge 12.3 inches
You get wireless car play and android auto
You get 2 bluetooth connections
You get OTA updates
And then for safety stuff you get toyota safety sense 3.0 which is brilliant system that works really well and we’d put it around top 5
7 – The roof
All BZ4X models get the pano roof as standard which is really nice
It’s also one of the only cars in this segment to offer a closing shade for the roof
Which is double edged – on one hand it’s nice to have the option but on the other hand it does eat into headroom a bit
Also there’s this weird bar across the middle
Presumably it’s for crash safety but the roof above it is one piece that just passes over it
8 – The rear
The rear seats, like i mentioned, don’t have RAV4 levels of headroom but they’re still comfy enough for someone at 6’1”
They do offer a bunch of legroom though and in the limited grade you can even get heated rear seats
Sure you can get that in the Ioniq5 and Ev6 too but those are a lot more expensive
Limited BZ4X also offers heated and cooled front seats as well
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So that’s the best and the rest of the Toyota BZ4X
Don’t let the number of good to bad things fool you, this is still a fairly solid EV, especially froma company that doesn’t really want to sell EVs
However, all cards on the table, my money still goes to an Ioniq5
But thanks Toyota for letting us a have a go in the BZ4X!