The Toyota bZ4X may have an unusual exterior design and some interior quirks, but it’s a good, practical vehicle that reinforces the Japanese manufacturer’s vast car-making experience. However, by equipping it with a relatively small battery that doesn’t provide competitive range numbers, Toyota has negated all of the vehicle’s good points and made it unattractive for buyers for whom range is the most important metric when buying a new EV.
Marques Brownlee spent a week with a Toyota bZ4X, and in the video he posted on his AutoFocus channel, he praises it for being a great car. He notes that he shot the review in winter, and he can’t get over the fact that with a full charge, the vehicle only predicted a range of 199 miles, quite far off the official EPA estimate.
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The Toyota bZ4X is a good car but an average EV
The bZ4X is like any Toyota with its practical interior and reasonable price, but its limited range and relatively low charging power don't make it a strong EV buy.
When he starts up the car on video with 60% left in its battery, the predicted range is 125 miles with the climate system on.
Toyota says a front-wheel bZ4X like the one Marques tested should be able to do 252 miles on one charge of its 71.4-kilowatt-hour battery pack, whose usable capacity is 64 kWh. The EPA-estimated range drops to 228 miles for the dual-motor all-wheel drive version. These numbers are achievable in warmer weather, but the bZ4X is just like any other EV and has a lower range in the cold.
The Toyota bZ4X has a maximum charging power of 100 kW, which is enough to charge its battery from 10 to 80% in 35 minutes. Charging it from flat to 100% via an 11 kW Level 2 AC charger will take around 5 hours.
Marques concludes his video by saying the bZ4X feels like a tall and fully electric Prius that does exactly what you expect it to. The convenience of simply putting fuel into the Prius to add more range and the fact that the bZ4X is quite a low-range EV make the latter a rather impractical proposition in his eyes. However, if you can live with the limited range and you really want a Toyota EV, the bZ4X is a solid option, especially if you get a cheap lease deal on one.
