At long last Toyota is finally in the modern electric vehicle market. Kind of. Yes, Toyota has had some one off electric RAV4’s in the past, even one via partnership with the vaunted Tesla. But their bread and butter in electrification is definitely the hybrid side of the world, and even some recent nice plug-in hybrids like the RAV4 Prime. Seemingly everyone else from the traditional automotive side has been on an electric kick for at least the past 5 years. With that Toyota was forced to show up with something, and the first something is this, the bZ4X.
Let’s first dissect the name… bZ is Toyota speak for Beyond Zero and their mission to achieve carbon neutrality. This bZ moniker is expected to be on a number of Toyota EV’s in the near future. 4 represents the size category, ostensibly akin to the RAV4 perhaps, but the 4 in RAV4 originally was pegged for 4 Wheel Drive. And X for crossover. Maybe the name will make more sense once more models roll out, or maybe they’ll ditch it and go back to real names.
In any case, the bZ4X really is effectively the smoothest RAV4 out there. It is ultra refined and quiet, like most modern electric vehicles should be. But this helps mitigate some of the gruffness of Toyota’s gasoline engines that is rather pervasive these days, even in their beloved hybrids. With so many hybrids, it doesn’t surprise me that Toyota knows how to make a smooth electric drive experience.
One potentially glaring EV omission may be the lack of a true one-pedal drive mode, where the car can bring itself to a complete stop (and hold you) as you lift off of the accelerator. It does have a boosted regenerative braking mode, but it’s still not quite the full stop mode that many EV drivers have come to expect. For many new EV drivers the lack of one-pedal may not even be missed. It probably does stand to reason that the bZ4X may only attract the extremely Toyota faithful, who would fall into the new to EV driver bucket and so may not even want one-pedal. bZ4X is not the only EV without one-pedal though.
Inside, as you’re driving, the driver display and small steering wheel set up is a bit unique as you look over the top of the wheel at the instrument cluster rather than through the wheel. That does take some adjustment to feel normal, but the Toyota Prius faithful will be familiar as it has used this setup in the past. The small diameter wheel feels nice in hand at least. Other materials are ok if a bit basic. There’s an interesting waffle/knit fabric across the middle swath of the instrument panel. Many of the controls are touch sensitive on gloss black plastic, but at least they’re dedicated and offer direct access rather than being buried under multiple menus in a screen. Back seat is spacious with good room for tall passengers and can accommodate rear facing infant car seats too, big bonus for us these days.
The bZ4X is rather point and shoot. Thankfully, the ride itself is rather taut and controlled, again benefitting from the great EV characteristic of having lots of battery mass down low. Just like the smoothness of the acceleration, the weight of the EV here does provide a bit of substance to the overall ride quality without being overly heavy and porky. It imparts a premium feel over something like a standard RAV4.
Our tester was a Front Wheel Drive Limited model. It was equipped with the Limited Weather package, which is heated rear seats and some trick front radiant heat panels for your feet and legs. That’s just $350 while the two-tone paint costs $500 which is also separate from the uncharge on the Windchill Pearl paint for $425. But I’ll say the styling does look better in person than in pictures and the lines look very crisp in the white paint.
All in, with destination, our MSRP was $49,728. You get a lot of stuff on the Limited including the top down parking camera view, large 12.3″ multimedia system with wireless phone mirroring (aka CarPlay), wireless device charger, heated and ventilated front seats and a fixed glass panoramic roof with a nice powered shade. One thing missing was no power adjustments for the front passenger seat, driver only, bit of a cheap out for $50K.
201 horsepower might seem paltry, but EVs make their smiles with their instantaneous torque and the bZ4X still delivers there with 196 pounds of the good stuff. As for other EV bits both the front wheel drive and all wheel drive bZ4X’s use a similar size battery, just over 70 kWh’s in both, but there are differences. The single motor front wheel drive bZ4X can actually charge at a faster rate (150 kW) than the dual motor configuration (100 kW). This would only be significant if you intend to use DC fast charging with any regularity. The dual motor (all wheel drive) yields 214 horsepower and 248 lb-ft of torque for a bit more punch, but does pare back range from the front wheel drive’s 242 to just 222. Utilizing any of the heat or A/C exhibits a pretty big hit on the projected range, so it may be best to stick to those radiant panels and the heated/ventilated seats
So on EV specs alone the bZ4X may not win Toyota any new shoppers, but they have a big stable of loyal owners to try to keep in house. Will the bZ4X do enough to retain them? The $40,000 to $50,000 price bracket of EVs is ultra competitive, especially after the price reductions over at team Tesla. For people shopping the RAV4, especially RAV4 Prime, if you have the ability to charge at home and don’t find yourself taking lots of extended distance trips, the bZ4X fits the Toyota bill and there’s still a lot to like about the EV experience here.
