I think if there’s one thing I can absolutely, confidently say about Toyota it’s that the company doesn’t make crap. They just don’t. You may not like what they’re making, but whatever it is, be it fantastic or forgettable, it’s probably been well-engineered. I say this up front as a way to temper the rest of the things I’m going to say about Toyota’s first mass-market battery electric vehicle, the bZ4X, which is, if I’m honest, a competent if underwhelming electric car. It’s not bad, but it’s hardly exceptional, either, and I think that may actually be intentional. I think Toyota wants to make an EV that’s a little bit forgettable for reasons that are clear when you’re one of the world’s largest carmakers, and perhaps the largest supplier of cars to people who claim they don’t really care about cars. This car will be a Big Deal for Toyota, so let’s dig into it.
[Full Disclosure: Toyota sent me to its headquarters in the quaint hamlet of Plano, Texas, sometimes called the Amsterdam of Denton County, for an event called Toyota HQ Confidential, so named because they showed us two cars I really want to tell you about, but can’t. While there, I finally got to drive the BR4Z or BXZ4 or whatever the hell this thing is called. Also, Toyota bought me a very nice steak.]
The timing of Toyota’s first mass-market battery EV at first seems strangely late to the game, at least when compared to other carmakers of Toyota’s scale, but, really, if you look at Toyota’s history, it’s not. Toyota is generally a pretty conservative company, engineering-wise, and tends to only introduce innovations after they’ve very extensively studied and tested them.
That’s why Toyota’s first front-wheel drive compact cars were the Tercel and Corsa, introduced in 1978, a solid six years after such front-wheel drive big sellers as Honda’s Civic, and four years after Volkswagen’s Golf, as well as many other earlier cars. Toyota doesn’t rush into things, and that includes battery electric vehicles.
That said, Toyota has been a pioneer of electrification. The combustion/electric hybrid Prius has been the best-known hybrid vehicle for the past 20 years, and did more to popularize and prove the value of hybrid drivetrains more than any other car. Then there’s Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric vehicle, the Mirai, which has been around since 2014 and, as far as I can tell, has made the adoption of hydrogen-powered vehicles only slightly less popular than genital herpes to the average car buyer, so there’s that. Toyota has been skirting around the concept of a battery electric vehicle (BEV) for quite a while, when you consider all this, so it fits the company’s pattern of behavior that it’d only release a BEV when it ws good and ready. I guess that time is now.
By the way, if you’d like to watch a 12-minute conversation and walkaround of the bZ4x, unedited and gritty, I have one right here for you:
If not, I won’t be offended, as I cover pretty much everything here. Still, if you feel like your life would be better knowing what it’s like to interact with actual Toyota employees talking about one of their new cars, I’ve got you covered.
That Name
Okay, first, we have to get this out of the way: The name is terrible. I’m not exactly sure what sort of dark alchemy Toyota employed to find a series of letters so awkward and un-memorable as bZ4X, but whatever the brand was doing, it accomplished the goal. For whatever reason, I cannot seem to remember those four simple characters, no matter how hard I try. As I type this, I’m getting better, but it never seems natural to me.
The only way I’ve been able to remember the name at all is if I think of it as the name of an astromech droid from the Star Wars universe, since it has that sort of pattern and cadence. But that’s the only way. I’m not sure how Toyota managed it, but somehow this awkward cluster of alphanumerics is less appealing than other awkward clusters of alphanumerics that other cars are named.
What really baffles me is the fact that Toyota has spent two solid decades building up a brand, Prius, to become synonymous with eco-friendliness and new technology and electrified driving. Why the hell wasn’t this car part of the Prius family?
Sure, the name may be polarizing to some, but the Prius brand has a dedicated and loyal following and a lot of goodwill among just the sorts of buyers who would be looking at an electric car from Toyota right now, so why not leverage all of that? Why wasn’t this the Prius BEV, or something?
I asked Toyota reps about this, and they all insisted that the name comes from Toyota’s “beyond zero” campaign, something that the average consumer cares about as much as Arborist Appreciation Day, which is today, and I bet you didn’t get your arborist anything — not even a card.
They also told me that the shape of the car somehow didn’t fit in with the Prius line and a lot of other stuff I rolled my eyes at (not in front of them, of course. I waited until I got to my hotel room then rolled my eyes in front of the mirror until I puked a little) but the upshot of all this is that no, this is not a Prius, it’s a bZ4X, so there. I’d like to suggest “Busy forks” as a possible nickname that’s easier to remember.
The Platform
The bZ4X is built on the electric variant of the Toyota New Global Architecture platform (TNGA), called “e-TNGA, which was co-developed with Subaru. This is a modular platform, and will underpin cars of a variety of sizes, with a few fixed hard point areas and the rest being flexible, including number of battery modules, front or front and rear motors, overhang length, and so on.
Unlike many EV platforms, e-TNGA is by default a front motor/front wheel drive setup, and while it’s referred to as a “skateboard” chassis, it’s less of a skateboard design than, say, Tesla uses, as e-TNGA packages a lot of its essential hardware and front drive unit in a tall stack at the front of the vehicle that eliminates the possibility of a front trunk, like many other manufacturers have provided.
I’ll admit, this is sort of a sticking point of mine. I gave Volkswagen plenty of shit for the same packaging issue with its MEB-based ID.4 electric crossover, which also lacks a front trunk, even though I think VW could have managed to get one in there.
I have the same problem with the bZ4X. The lack of a front trunk feels lazy. Ford manages to do it, even providing a massive one on its F-150 Lightning, which isn’t even on a bespoke EV platform, Volvo figured it out, as did Polestar, Chevy, Kia, Jaguar, Rivian, and of course so did Tesla. Sure, it’s a packaging challenge, but I think it’s worth it, at the very least for a small bin to store and access charging cables or adapters without having to unload other luggage.
I get that putting things underhood can free up some space elsewhere, and perhaps servicing and accessibility is better under the hood? I’m willing to give Toyota some benefit of the doubt about that, but I’d still rather have a frunk. Frunks are novel and strangely appealing and EVs are our first chance for non-exotic car buyers to enjoy them again, since the old heyday of cheap rear engined cars went away in the 1960s. Let’s make the most of it.
Driving It
I have to say that I was genuinely surprised to hear one of the PR people tell me, with some pride, that the bZ4x does not have “neck-snapping acceleration.” This is the first time I’ve ever had a PR person brag about a car’s relative lack of acceleration, and I think this is a very telling statement about which market Toyota is planning to sell this car to: people who just want to go places. In a car.
This isn’t to suggest that the acceleration of the bZ4X is bad, because it’s not — it’s totally fine, and can even feel a bit quick. But it’s not like some Tesla Model S Plaid that has potential to emulsify your brains into a puddle at the back of your skull and put you into a wall or send you deep into a lake via the sheer intensity of speed. Toyota understands that the likely buyers of this car don’t have any interest or time for that bullshit — they’re healthy, well-adjusted normies, not car-addled fools like us, making eyer-rollingly bad car decisions on a near daily basis.
The bZ4X in its one-motor, FWD configuration makes 201 horsepower and 196 pound-feet of torque, which is decent enough, but if you want, you can add a second motor for the AWD version and shoot that number up to an astounding 214 hp and 248 pound-feet of torque. Hey, wait – the second motor only adds 13 hp? Is the second motor from a kitchen mixer?
I mean, look, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the amount of power the Buzzforceps makes. It’s quick enough to get from nothing to 60 mph is about six and a half seconds, and if you need more than that, why are you even wasting that nice Toyota salesman’s time? Get him to put you in a Supra.
The bZ4X does impress with the quiet and smoothness of the ride. It’s like catching the eye of an impeccably-manicured older man in a clearly expensive suit drinking a golden liquor in the sunlight of an outdoor café, and when he sees you he makes eye contact, and raises one eyebrow and his glass to you simultaneously and you’re left thinking goddamn that man is quiet and smooth. It’s like that, so if that’s what you want, fantastic.
The steering is what it should be on a car like this: precise, joyless, effective, and most buyers will never think about it beyond the fact that the rotation of the wheel points the car where to go.
The bZ4X doesn’t offer one-pedal driving like many other EVs, but you can adjust the amount of regen, just not up to the levels where you get to ignore the brake pedal.
What’s very clear is that Toyota tuned this car to meet the desires of their target buyers: It’s easy to drive, it’s comfortable, it insulates the driver and passengers from the sensations and weather outside, and it asks little in return. It also seems to beep a little less frequently than recent Priuses do, which is a blessing.
The Range And Charging
According to Toyota’s official numbers, the 71.4 kWh battery pack in the single-motor bZ4X will take you up to 252 miles in XLE form or ten miles less if you opt for the Limited trim. With two motors and a slightly larger 72.8 kWh battery pack, you’ll be able to go 228 miles in the XLE, and 222 in the Limited.
Those numbers are, at best, adequate. They’re about the minimum expected from a modern EV, and like anything that’s the expected minimum, it’s kind of disappointing. Even worse, recent real-world tests by Edmunds has found that the bZ4X falls short of its estimated EPA range by 15 miles for a single-motor Limited version, for a total of only 227 miles.
That’s not great, and what’s also un-great is the fact that the maximum 240V AC charging rate on a Level 2 home charger is 6.6 kW. That’s not ideal compared to other EVs like the Ford Mach-E and VW ID.4, which can pull up to 11 kW.
Toyota says its Level 2 charging capability can bring the car from “low to full” in nine hours. Of course, DC fast charging is quicker, with front-drive models offering 150 kW charging capability and all-wheel drive offering 100 kW. Motor Trend did some testing on the bZ4X’s charging rates; check that out.
The Look
I feel like Toyota is finally emerging from a long period of some really overdone, unpleasant design — a busy, confusing design language full of vents and folds and flaps and creases and fins and all sorts of mess — most of which is happily tamed down on the bZ4x. Instead, we have a fairly clean design that relies quite heavily on the contrast between the black wheelarch and other sections and the painted body panels.
Look how much work those black sections are doing in the profile view of the Bizzyforks: That middle section that kicks up between the wheels is working hard to make the side view less bulky and ungainly, and the lower rear bumper corner’s blackout attempts to give an illusion of a pert, tapered-in rear, and the angular black wheelarch sections want to make you think those wheels are way bigger than they are.
Toyota calls this an SUV or crossover, but really it’s a four-door hatchback. A bulky one, sure, with a high beltline and fairly tall, but there’s not that much ground clearance, and it doesn’t meet both Rules of Wagonhood, so it’s not even a wagon. It’s a hatchback.
I mean, if you want to drive it on dirt roads, it should be just fine to do so, as Toyota shows in a little promo video:
https://youtu.be/058RjHbWIMw
Not that there’s anything wrong with hatchbacks, of course. I love them. Which is why I think Toyota shouldn’t feel ashamed to call the bZ4X an EV hatchback, if they wanted.
The front end treatment is fairly simple and reads a bit like a mischievously-smiling face, which I’d regard as a plus. The lighting is pleasantly simple, though the way the body-colored panels rest atop the headlamps while being just slightly removed from the rest of the body makes them look a bit like pop=up headlights that are stuck halfway. I’m not really sure I get what they were going for with that.
The giant dogbone-shaped bumper area has a slightly concave shape and character lines, but in white especially, facing the front, it does become a huge blank visual area that still, somehow, doesn’t seem to have an easy provision for a front license plate outside of drilling holes.
Around the rear we find a graphical treatment with the taillights forming a single, branching unit that stretches across the rear of the car with a thin black-and-red bar, then grabs on for dear life at either end, gripping around those rear fender haunch-bulges. It’s not boring, and I like the character line that forms the top crease of the rear haunch over the wheelarch.
It is a bit busy, and again we see a lot of black plastic earning its pay to hide a good foot of bulk at the lower rear of the car. I hope all these black areas are forgiving of scrapes and scratches, because if they are, that would make them actually useful. Toyota wasn’t crazy about letting me test that out, though, so I can’t say for sure.
I do kind of like the internal CRT-scanline-like linear graphics in the taillight itself, something that worked very nicely on early ’80s Pontiac Trans Ams, among other cars. I’m not being a dick here, I genuinely like it!
Overall, I think Toyota has accomplished something very specific with the exterior design of the bZ4X: The brand has made a car that’s quite easily recognizable, even from a distance, a car that seems to have a lot of edgy design characteristics, but the more you look at it, the more conventional and normal it seems. That’s a tricky dance, and I think they pulled it off well, and it’ll suit their target customers well.
That said, I don’t really think it’s all that appealing looking, especially when compared to other EVs like the Kia/Hyundai pair, which have genuinely striking and elegant designs with real character and style:
It’s not bad. It’s not great. I think it’ll be just fine for a lot of people, and I also think this is a sort of theme you’ll be seeing a lot throughout this review.
The Interior
I think the bZ4X (dammit, it’s still hard to remember and type that) makes some of its most questionable decisions in the interior, which I suppose you could say about many of us, too. There’s some great choices here, too, like the use of an engagingly-textured fabric for the main dash covering instead of the usual textured plastic, but there are also some strange choices, like the deeply confusing instrument binnacle design and the fact that the car has no glove box.
Yes, that’s right, much like my sad little Yugo or a 1972 Ford Maverick, the bZ4x has no glove compartment, and for some reason this pisses me off. Toyota’s friendly reps told me it was because there is an optional heater unit that can be mounted in this location, which heats up the car more efficiently than the conventional heater system, and while I think that’s great, I don’t believe for a filthy second that a company with the engineering might of motherflapping Toyota couldn’t have figured out how to work a glove box in here as well.
The Toyota reps eagerly showed me that the center console storage and door pockets were ample, and while that’s great, every other modern car manages to have those same exact storage compartments and a damn glove box.
Look, this isn’t the end of the world, but with EV competition being so intense and the main competitors being so closely matched in so many ways, why would Toyota leave out something as expected and useful as a glove box? Sure, it has other compartments, but have you looked inside people’s cars, Toyota? People use them all. Generally, the glove box gets the duty of being a car’s mobile archives and records department, holding registration and insurance cards and service records and other important documents, safely and out of the way, freeing up those center console storage bins and door pockets for the other random detritus of life.
When you get rid of a key storage component from the storage ecosystem of a car, that cascades down, and now maybe the center console box has to hold the Important Documents so you’re less likely to comfortably use it for your other crap and entropy gets a firmer grip on your messy life and things get worse.
Screw that. Toyota could have put in a damn glovebox, but they didn’t, like they didn’t bother to try to fit a frunk. It’s disappointing.
Okay. Let’s move on to something nice. The rear seat room is great! The floor is flat, and the rear seats are quite comfortable! Also, the cargo area is pretty generous, and there’s a movable floor panel that can be dropped to give a few extra inches of height, or be raised to create a flat floor when the rear seats are folded down:
It’s a good, usable space back there (27.7 cubic feet, so if you’re wondering how many NeXT Cubes will fit in there, the answer is 27), and the cargo opening is a good size as well. I’m sure plenty of bicycles and curbside love seats will get crammed into these hatches an awful lot in the near future.
Okay. Now let’s talk about this:
That’s the instrument cluster, and while I do appreciate the novelty of the unusual design, clamped on the steering column like a face hugger from the Alien movies, when actually trying to use these instruments, I always found it looked like this:
Somehow, no matter how I positioned the seat, they were always blocked by the steering wheel. Yes, I’m a comically, possibly even tragically short guy, but I’m about the average height for a woman, and I’m pretty sure there’s a vast market of women buyers out there who would be dealing with this same situation, just with likely better personal hygiene.
Toyota calls this a HUD-like instrument position, suggesting that it requires less eye movement, but I’m not buying that, since real heads-up-displays project or reflect images directly on the windshield and aren’t blocked by the damn steering wheel.
It’s also not like the graphic design of the gauges are that great, either.
The text is small and thin, the icons are tiny and not easy to identify, and for some reason I can’t fathom Toyota is still using backlit warning lights instead of incorporating all the warning icons right into the main gauge cluster LCD display. Maybe it’s for redundancy reasons? I’m not sure, but it seems wasteful to me – there’s already a display there that can show anything you want, so why waste some LEDs and a scrim to show some blinking arrows or a blue high-beam light?
On the plus side, I appreciate some of the small graphical touches seen on surfaces throughout the cabin.
Electro-Toys And Whatevers
Toyota understands what its buyers want when it comes to infotainment and electronics, and for the most part provides everything demanded: CarPlay and Android audio, wireless phone charging, a decent number of USB A and C charging ports, a high-quality center stack screen, voice controls that actually will operate the HVAC system and wipers, over-the-air software updates, WiFi hotspot capability, lane keeping, dynamic cruise, and similar semi-automated driver assist systems, and so on. It’s all there, it’s all basically fine.
There are some interesting very Toyota-like innovations that seem to be happening quietly and without much notice, like a “high-resistance coolant, which prevents fire from short circuits even if leakage of the battery’s liquid coolant occurs,” which seems like a damn good idea.
Price And Verdict
The 2023 Toyota bZ4X starts at about $42,000, but expect over $43,000 with destination charges and all that. The FWD Limited edition goes up to about $48,000, and when you add the second motor for AWD you’ll be adding about $2,000 more. You also have to pay for colors that aren’t black, like over $400 for white paint, which seems ridiculous.
I’m going to compare that to the Hyundai Ionic 5 that starts at under $40,000 and the Kia EV6 that starts at just over $40,000. I think both of those look significantly better and offer better range and charging options than the bZ4X, which makes me wonder why, exactly, anyone would pick the Toyota over those, or over a Mach-E or Tesla Model 3 or Y or VW ID.4 or even a Chevy Bolt?
I think the answer is because it’s a Toyota. And this isn’t so much about any kind of brand snobbery, it’s that Toyota, as I said at the beginning, has a long, well-earned reputation for not building crap. And I think that matters to a lot of people.
Tesla has often been accused of building crap, and while there are many diehard fans out there who would buy literal crap if it came from the taut anus of Elon Musk [Editor’s Note: Jason, do we really need to rile up the Tesla stans for no reason? -DT], there are also many people who see the, um, everything (gestures all around, waving arms) around Tesla as something they’d rather avoid, and these same people have read stories about Chevy Bolts catching fire and just aren’t interested in buying an EV to be cutting edge or whatever. They just want a car they don’t have to worry about that doesn’t need gasoline, and the bZ4X could be just that.
People will buy a Toyota because their experience with Toyotas has been undemanding and easy and painless, and those people may be looking for those exact same anodyne traits in an EV. There’s a place in the market for an EV with specs that are just good enough if buyers can feel pretty certain they won’t ever have to think about the car if they don’t want to, and I think there’s a good chance that’s what Toyota has made here.
So, if you’re looking at numbers and specs and style, I don’t think there’s a lot to steer anyone to the bZ4X. But if you want a reasonable guarantee that the EV you’re buying won’t be a hunk of crap in the shop all the time, then I think you can make a pretty safe assumption that Toyota will deliver that.
One last thing: I saw this as I was testing out the bZ4X, and I’m very curious.
A cowboy church? Are there mechanical bulls involved? Beef jerky used instead of communion wafers? Sounds kinda fun.
I had the same question about the backlit warning lights on my Santa Cruz. The relevant federal regulation is available at https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/571.101 .
s5.3.1.e reads: “A telltale must not emit light except when identifying the malfunction or vehicle condition it is designed to indicate, or during a bulb check.”
Maybe since an LCD screen is always emitting light, you can’t use it? There’s also a rule that says the driver can’t be allowed to dim the telltale below the level of daylight visibility, and I *can* do that with my dash display, that might be it too. Anyway, glad I’m not the only one who wondered that!
Must be a law that requires it, because on my old Street Triple, the backlit gas light is right next to the LCD gas light, which is pretty stupid and redundant design-wise.
https://pictures.topspeed.com/IMG/crop_webp/201803/2018-street-triple-r-12_1600x0.webp
Did I miss the part where you explain the mannequin?
You can only cruise on your reputation while churning out mediocre half-efforts for so long before that reputation starts to suffer. If you want to maintain a Toyota-level rep, you have to knock it out of the park on a regular basis. The transition to EVs is still early enough that only Tesla has any reputation there to speak of—aside from them, it’s all up for grabs over the next 5-10 years. Cars are undergoing a paradigm shift, and that’s both an opportunity and a liability. It’s a chance for struggling marques to remake themselves, and for world-beating brands to fall flat on their faces.
This thing is deeply mediocre. It’s also fucking ugly as sin. And what the fuck, no glovebox? An instrument cluster that half the population can’t see? What the actual fuck, Toyota? I think Jason was too kind in describing this as “not crap.” There are at least half a dozen EVs I’d rather have than this, and that’s *most of the EVs there are.* I guess I’d rank it above the MX-30? Other than that… I dunno.
This reminds me of the JD Power anecdote in a linked article yesterday where the eponymous Mr. Power caused a riot in a meeting of Pontiac execs for having the gall to tell them GM was ten years away from falling under 30% market share. There are a number of potentially interesting things coming to the world of personal mobility, and $42k is a lot for me.
That said, I stepped into a Hyundai dealership for the first time in over a decade today. They have a couple of cars I’m legitimately interested in, but the sales experience was *so bad* that I didn’t even stick around for a test drive and am unlikely to try again for another decade.
$42k is a lot for “meh”. Frigging autocorrect.
The AWD Premium starts at €62k here in Finland lol
This is GARBAGE of the 10th order.
AND they want me.. in my 20yr old ELEMENT to turn it in, get a car payment.. and the ability.. legal of course, to consent to being tracked… constantly?
For what.. this?!
YOU THINK IM A craZY FOOL!?
Man this post lost me. First Toyota reputation is reliability, nothing they have churned out failed to meet that reputation. Second Tesla reputation is for poorly built highly unreliable EVs. Everything they have built meets their reputation. Now this post is betting more people want crap than reliability? If Tesla doesn’t improve they are doomed because the fanbois have already bought theirs and now they need the masses to buy. And Toyota, well usually top 2 in sales every month. I’ll stick to Toyota stock and Toyota reliability. But I don’t drive a Toyota.
I’m not sure I’d even rank it above the MX-30. The MX-30 is Mazda doing its favourite thing of aiming at a tiny market niche and selling everything into it (they’re popular in the UK as a short-range second car with lots of kit for the price). This is just kind of… bleh. And the lack of fast charging speed on the bigger battery is due to having different battery suppliers. It’s just weird and janky.
“Hey, wait – the second motor only adds 13 hp? Is the second motor from a kitchen mixer?”
Most likely it’s because it’s limited by what the battery pack can put out.
And I think the best thing that can be said about this Toyota is that it’s better than the half-assed attempt at a BEV that Mazda made.
Yeah, in the same way that the glove box is limited by the need for an optional auxiliary heater—the designers didn’t bother to do better. Name a single other EV that gets such a wimpy power boost going from one motor to two.
The engineering in this thing is insulting. At least with the MX-30 Mazda have an excuse that they’re a small automaker with no real history of electrified vehicles and no budget for the kind of giant R&D push that making a truly competitive EV from scratch would require. Toyota is a behemoth, a pioneer in mass-market electrification, and had Subaru carrying some of the effort as well—yet this is still what they came up with? You get the sense they almost didn’t want to try.
I am now and forever calling this the BuzzForX.
Also, I know Toyota is a conservative company but this seems so conservative it’s like they’re actively trying NOT to be competitive in the market. Are they still that bummed out that nobody cared about their Hydrogen car that?
Jason, one critical detail is missing. Are the rear turn signals amber or stupid?
The lack of both glove box AND frunk is truly baffling. I’m absolutely sure that whatever heater they put where the glovebox should be could have been put under the hood instead. They opted out of a frunk to make room for other stuff…but didn’t use it for this particular piece of other stuff. Bizarre.
BEES FORKS!!
I’ll recommend a Prius to damn near anyone for any use case (and drove a Gen2 to Alaska and back and all over the damn country). I lament not buying a Toyota 3-row SUV and buying a Kia instead. Were I to buy a 4×4, a Toyota would be top of the list. Granted, the Prius is the only Toyota I’ve actually owned out of a dozen or so vehicles, but they make a top logical option in nearly every civilian segment.
But my next car might be electric. And I would be delighted to jump into a basically fully-electric Prius or Highlander spinoff. This, though? It looks like garbage, the range is garbage, the name is garbage, the interior is garbage, it just sucks.
I came “this close” to buying a cheap Prius as the family transport. Couldn’t do it. Chose a much more fun car that immediately bit me in the ass for a fuel pump. I still have no regrets.
finally a Toyota which can be Grounded to the Ground
The Subaru Soltera is almost the exact same car, but Subaru has an advantage since it still has federal EV tax credits left where Toyota does not so the Subaru will be a little cheaper in the end. Why would you want the Toyota over the Subaru?
From my experience the Subaru buyers will have a far better dealership experience as well.
Which will depreciate faster?
I’d go for the subie because I drive my cars into the ground but for the average buyer, the yota is likely a better buy since people will look at a used Toyota very differently than a used Subaru, even if they are the same car.
Yes that’s a runon sentence and I don’t care because runon sentences are the best like my dog Tim.
I always wanted an electric CUV that looked vaguely like a panda. Thanks, Toyota!
As Jason so thoroughly pointed out, the Busy For Sex is what you would logically expect from Toyota for it’s first mainstream bev. Heck, even the styling looks like the just sketched new details on the Lexus NX design.
I believe the Cowboy Church worships the Bejeezus.
Related to the Church of the Three-Syllable Savior (Jay-EEzus Chrast!)
For what it’s worth, Tom Waits once went for a full FIVE syllables total (“Juh-heez-ee-yus Christ”) in his song “Filipino Box Spring Hog.” For sheer creativity, I still place him above the simpler, six-syllable recitation “Jee-ee-ee-ee-sus Christ…” in Alice in Chains’ “Man in the Box.”
I’m not surprised that Toyota made such a mediocre EV. We’re talking about a company who made a DOHC rev like a Detroit Diesel. A company that waited until 1984 to make the Corolla FWD. The company who got rid of every last one of their performance models in 2006 so they could cash in on the SUV craze and the Prius. This is not a company that often takes risks. And I think that is a detriment in the quickly evolving world of EV’s. I’m not saying it won’t sell, but cars from Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Tesla, and others can go further, accelerate faster, and cost the same(or less). In this age of the automobile, innovation is the name of the game, and Toyota is falling desperately behind on that front.
Yes, but also cars that let my mechanic to say “I don’t work on Toyotas much, because they don’t break.”
As you said, Toyota is rarely cutting edge. Arguably they were leaning out with the original Prius, and they’ve decided to hybrid-ize most of their lineup at this point. I think if they made a PHEV Highlander, they’d sell a million of them, but they don’t do that either.
I think Toyota customers like Toyota because they aren’t cutting edge. They are competent, reliable and that is it. Very few of them are going to go buy a Mach-E because Toyota doesn’t sell a competitor. They’ll wait for Toyota and drive a hybrid in the mean time.
And I always scratch my head at comments saying Toyota is behind the curve. EVs are all about batteries. Hybrids use batteries. So Toyota has arguably been selling more “large battery” vehicles than anyone else for a while. They are supposedly close to producing cars with solid state batteries. So it seems like they are probably ready, just don’t think it is time to dive into EVs entirely.
Not mentioned in the article is Toyota’s claim that their EVs will have 90% or more of the battery capacity remaining after 10 years. No other manufacturer is making that claim and preserving the battery means some compromises. The first is holding back more of the battery capacity in reserve. That lowers the range when new but insures that 10 years from now you will still be getting at least 90% of that range while the competition is down to 70 or so. Long battery life also means reducing heat from high draws (so no high HP numbers) and from high fast charger rates.
Toyota knows that the vast majority of their customers are going to charge their bZ4X at home in the garage overnight after driving 40 or so miles per days so why compromise longevity for thing their core customer doesn’t care about?
BZ, that stabilizer’s broken loose again. See if you can’t lock it down.
I am so over the black plastic around wheel openings and the rocker panels. Now it’s growing like a fungus over the entire front end. The first time I saw a picture of this thing over on jell-o-picnic, it reminded me of a replacement fender that was never painted. I expect to be surrounded by these on my commute in the coming years…
To me, at first glance, the black plastic wheel surrounds looked like the car was waiting for the body shop to get those missing body panels in to finish the repairs.
Excellent review, Jason. I was just discussing this very car with a friend yesterday, whose wife is looking for a commuter vehicle and is the very sort of Toyota brand loyalist you describe here. I suspect she’s the archetype for this car’s target market, and I’ll be interested to see if she ends up with one.
All that said, I think it’s pretty hideous, and would rather spend my money with VW were I in the market for a plug-in electric.
Oh, and re. the “Cowboy Church.” They’re very much a thing in this part of the world (I’m in OK). I believe the concept is “traditional Evangelical theology combined with the gritty, salt-of-the-earth ethos of the American Cowboy.” I’ve seen a few that actually have roping corrals, etc. installed on the grounds for even more Authentic Cowboy Cred™. Other than that, I’m not sure why they exist.
They exist so people can wear jeans and cowboy hats to church and not get the glares from some old lady for not wearing proper Sunday attire.
This is Texas. Jeans (specifically Wranglers, properly pressed and starched) and your best boot scooting cowboy hat *are* proper Sunday attire.
So they have an “optional” heater? Is that an admission that the standard heating is inadequate?
That is one ugly appliance. But other than the heating, it’s probably aimed perfectly at the intended buyer – except for the name. It’s stupid, and appliance buyers won’t like it for the same reason you don’t – they won’t be able to remember it.
Also, thanks for the NeXT reference. I’m curious how many people have even heard of the NeXT Cube (I’ve never seen one in person).
As I understand it, it’s for optional seat heaters. Ya know, the kind that are nice options on every kind of vehicle.
It’s actually a bit of a surprise to see them optional here, though. BEVs and PHEVs tend to have them as standard because they’re easier on range than heating the whole car.
I also appreciated the NeXT Cube mention. I have one.
I always wanted one, but couldn’t afford them when new and when I could they were very outdated.
It could be an admission that heat pumps arent cheap enough for most buyers. I am guessing though! I still dont 100% understand the differences between them
Bingo. Resistance electric heaters are pretty efficient (high 90’s) but still high draw accessories. My Chevy Spark and Chevy Bolt both had 5 kW resistance heaters which will burn through a battery pack quick! Heat pumps use the phase change of the refrigerant to extract heat from the air. Residential heat pumps can be 600% efficient – not sure how the automotive ones stack up but they will at least be a few times more efficient than a resistance heater.
“Cowboy” is just a marketing term to drum up business. You put “Cowboy” next to whatever you want to sell, and people who might think they are cowboys will buy it.
It is similar to putting an American flag in your advertisement, which of course runs afoul of the flag code.
Is this basically an electric RAV4? If it is they’ll sell every one they make. Something quietly competent that doesn’t break is just the ticket for many a buyer.
Any news on towing or other outdoorsy things people imagine themselves doing with lifted hatchbacks known as CUV’s?
Count me among those who look to Toyota for a reliable transportation appliance, but it does need to have some other upside other than being a Toyota. I’d like to see 300 miles of range on any EV I’d buy. So no dice there. Those black front fenders are just…awful. I’d rather they just made an electric RAV4 or Venza in the looks department. No glove box is…strange. And I guess I’d have to sit in it to see if that instrument panel issue is a deal breaker.
Guess I’d still prefer the Ioniq 5 if I had to buy an EV today. Or more likely, I’ll buy a RAV4 Prime if the dealers ever stop holding them hostage.
I’ve put about 10k miles on the RAV4 Prime that we bought in November. Most driving is my wife’s commute, which is pretty easily covered by the ~45-55 miles of EV range. On road trips it works just like a regular RAV4 (still gets 35+ mpg in hybrid mode).
Definitely not the most exciting car (it’s pretty freaking fast though), but it’s pretty flawless. If/when they make a PHEV Tacoma, or 4runner (I guess), I’ll be first in line to grab one.
There is a plug-in hybrid version of the RAV4 (the Prime) that is superior to this half-hearted monstrosity in every way.
maybe that was toyota’s play… make this to satisfy the government, but make it so ugly that anyone that’s not a hardcore EV enthusiast will simply take the rav4 prime
I don’t mind not having a frunk, if the trade-off is more room in the back and flat-folding seats. I was annoyed when I heard it had no glovebox, but I think I could get past that. It’s ugly in a way that all CUV / SUV fake-truck cars are, so that’s par for the course. But I can’t get past that instrument binnacle. It’s just stupid. I could never own a car where the steering wheel always blocks the instrument panel (and Jason is not the first person to point that out). Do better, Toyota.
Do those surrounds on the instrument cluster reduce glare? They look like they would reduce glare. Kind of a Knight Rider vibe with those.
Jason: Nailed it, they are selling Toyota as boring but bulletproof. They will sell everyone they produce. Also I think it is the ugliest thing I have seen since the Lexus predator grill. That 2tone is just hideous. and yes the interior…I’m not even sure WTF that area behind that ugly steering wheel is. Some kind of alien device shape? I do however like the taillights. And the lack of an important auto file cabinet is a true sin. Not everyone puts all that shit on their iPhone and Sandy Sheriff wants a piece of paper, not your phone.
Same. Driving dynamics seem wonderfully bland for a transportation appliance. It’s Toyota so yeah, it’ll live longer than the others in its segment, and do so pretty much painlessly for the owner.
But damn. Some pretty serious concessions on the interior and it’s among the ugliest vehicles I’ve ever seen. It’s like they took a Pontiac Aztek and said, “we can make it far more hideous”. This is an evolution of Toyota’s design language that does remove some of the unnecessary creases and stuff, but adds the stupid wheel surrounds. It looks like a low-budget sci-fi car from the 90s that was built with a three-figure prop budget. I can’t even with the odd interior. Just nope.
It’ll sell out for sure. But I have no desire to own one or even see one in the wild. Or any other current Toyota / Lexus if I’m honest.
Beef Jerky communion? That just might get me back in to church on Sundays.
Or they could use slices of real French baguettes. But having said that, nothing will ever get me back into a Catholic church.
Just another hideous Toyota. I agree that it will appeal to the appliance drivers out there, but even if I was looking for an appliance, I wouldn’t want to be seen in that. It’s actually worse than the “spindle grill” currently defacing Lexuses.
I am a proud Appliance Driver and past owner for ten years each of two Toyotas, a ’99 Corolla and an ’09 Scion xB.
This has no appeal to me whatsoever. I have been considering a RAV4 Prime, which is 1000% more appealing the the BlastFork or whatever this is.
The RAV4 is a plug-in hybrid with an 18.5 kWh battery that gives 42 miles of range. That covers 95% of our driving trips. When that doesn’t, for road trips, it has a solid ICE engine. I believe that the RAV4 Prime has two motors, so it comes with AWD and galloping acceleration, standard.
The RAV4 Prime also qualifies for the $7,500 tax credit and costs a bit less than the ButchFork.
The review of the RAV4 Prime didn’t mention a glovebox. Why would it?
Yea I don’t understand why everyone is pushing EV so hard. Yes, it can cover most peoples driving needs, but not all and not all the time. If you only owned and EV, any car trip longer than a couple hours is going to turn into an all day journey with built in charging stops.
A hybrid seems to make the most sense. Battery covers most day to day driving and ICE gives you *unlimited range. ICE will also cover your butt if you didn’t get a chance to recharge the battery. I’m not currently in the market, but when I am hybrids will be a top consideration.
It sounds like a theme for their Children’s Bible school, which is usually a week.
You hit the nail on the head. It isn’t better than the competition in any meaningful way, but it’s a Toyota, and for some, that’s enough.
But it is better.
Your partner’s Honda ate a transmission last year, just like their Nissan before it. Your neighbor’s Chevy has sounded like rattling death for damn near a decade. Your son’s Kia started knocking and guzzling oil practically the day after the warranty expired.
But you? You traded your clean 220k-mile Camry for an Avalon back in 2005 at Harold Blickman Toyota. And in 2025, when your hips demand better ride height and your sensibilities demand a quieter, more refined drivetrain, you’ll be back to Harold Blickman Toyota. You’ll turn down the customary oil change, trade in your trouble-free 280k-mile Avalon, and drive home in a bZ4X.
Though I’m sure you could get better deals at Rice Toyota or Beaver Toyota…
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