This electric crossover is around the same size as the RAV4 and will be available in the United States next year. Other Toyota EVs, like a pickup truck, will follow.
- This concept vehicle foreshadows the Toyota bZ4X electric crossover, which will be the first of Toyota’s latest Beyond Zero EVs to hit the market next year.
- It has a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive configuration and is based on a Toyota and Subaru co-developed electric platform.
- There will be 15 new Toyota EVs in total, with seven of them bearing the bZ moniker.
Toyota says it is working on 15 new electric vehicles, seven of which will be dubbed bZ, or Beyond Zero. The bZ4X crossover, which was previewed by this concept vehicle, would be the first to arrive—a sensible option, given that the RAV4 was Toyota’s best-selling car in the United States last year. The bZ4X will be available in mid-2022, with additional vehicles, including an electric pickup truck, expected in the coming years.
The bZ4X design is shaped and sized similarly to the RAV4 crossover, but it is smaller, has a longer wheelbase, and has sharper styling. The design captures the ethos of bold, futuristic EV looks from the outside, but we can’t say the same about the interior. An unnecessarily bulky steering column takes its place, with a digital gauge cluster set back far from the steering wheel, which has an oversize hub with cluster and driver-assistance feature buttons. The center console, which has a rotary shifter in the middle and storage underneath with two USB-C ports, has a wide touchscreen that extends up from it.
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Toyota hasn’t revealed battery size or range, but the bZ4X will have to contend with other electric crossovers like the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which has a range of up to 305 miles, and the Tesla Model Y, which has a range of 326 miles on its Long Range model.The bZ4X, like other upcoming Toyota models, will be based on Toyota’s e-TNGA electric vehicle platform, which was designed in collaboration with Subaru and supports single-motor front- or rear-wheel-drive configurations as well as dual-motor, all-wheel-drive models, such as the bZ4X. A single-motor bZ4 is expected to be affordable, as well as a Subaru electric vehicle.
More information on the Toyota bZ4X will be released shortly, and it is expected to arrive in the United States in the middle of next year. Given that the plug-in hybrid RAV4 Prime starts at $39,220, we expect the production version to cost about $40,000.
