You can’t buy it in Singapore yet, but Toyota’s first proper EV, the BZ4X SUV, proves the company has the ability to build competitive electric cars

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SINGAPORE 

If you’re scared of EVs and their newness, an electric car from a brand feted for its reliable products could be a powerful persuader.

But Toyota’s first proper EV, the BZ4X claims just such traits, and while you can’t buy one in Singapore just yet, read on to find out why it could be a big deal for future EV buyers (i.e. every car buyer). 

As our conversations with attendees at EV Wekeend 2022 showed, there’s still a lot of myth-busting, fear-allaying, and general education about EVs that needs to happen here in Singapore.

This is the first BZ car, and arguably Toyota’s first proper EV. No, you still can’t buy one here : The BZ4X has been homologated in Singapore, but will not yet be offered for open sale. Instead, as CarBuyer reported, it’ll be available for short-term lease at the new eco-town of Tengah. 

Disclaimer: We’re approaching this car as a one-off p/review, so take it primarily for insights on how Toyota’s future EVs will be. The official Toyota answer to pricing, availability, options, and such, unless otherwise stated is: We don’t know.

Also note that the BZ4X has not had a smooth birth. It’s been the subject of recalls for its wheels, and in cold countries faces range problems. Nonetheless it does offer us a preview of what to expect from Toyota’s EV, and it also shows that the Japanese carmaker is serious about EVs. This, after all, is the first of seven BZ EVs slated to hit the global market by 2025, out of a total of 15 Toyota EVs. In other words, BZ is Toyota going Big on EVs – and what we see here predicts Toyota’s EV future.

Toyota BZ4X : Design and Appearance

The styling tells us as much. In concept, it’s like many other EVs, being a middle-sized, coupe-styled SUV – just like the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Tesla Model Y, Audi E-Tron, Jaguar I-Pace…and on and on. 

But it’s quite an fascinating piece of design work too, and unmistakably not a European car. The BZ makes reference to other Toyotas, with shades of the C-HR, the Harrier, and Yaris Cross in the wheelarches, the silhouette, and shoulder-line design motifs. The spindle grille is implied, rather than obvious, and to our eyes, it looks more like a Lexus than a Toyota, which is a good thing. 

Under the skin, the car runs Toyota’s dedicated EV platform, E-TNGA. Like the skin that it’s clad in, it takes the now common EV lessons, but puts a Toyota spin on things. Abroad the car is available as a dual-motor all-wheel drive and single-motor front-wheel drive model – this is the latter with 201hp and 360Nm of torque.  

It’s a sea change (as our box shows you), but the really important thing is that the BZ4X feels, drives, and behaves like a proper EV, albeit a Toyota-ified one.

Toyota BZ4X : Driving Experience / Range and Charging

This paragraph is going to be familiar to CarBuyer readers: Low-mount batteries means planted, stable driving dynamics at regular speeds, large 19-inch wheels and an approximately two-tonne kerbweight mean sometimes choppy suspension.

What are the Toyota-esque bits? It’s a car that makes a commute melt away, since you don’t really need to ‘drive around’ anything. It’s very refined, with even less road noise than the Kia EV6, and while it isn’t big on power it feels quicker than its 8.6-second 0-100km/h time suggests.

On the flipside, it’s not very exciting to drive. It could do with more steering feel, and it obviously dislikes dynamic extremes. The not-so-impressive torque figure is classic Toyota : You don’t get as much grunt, but our guess is it’s been done on purpose so you don’t stress the electronics/motor and tyres as much in the long run. 

New of course, is fully electric range and charging. After driving the car over a few days, we covered almost 200km and 17.5kWh/100km, which translates to 400km on a full charge, which is exactly what a buyer should expect from a modern EV. Standard charging is rather slow at 6.6kW (11kW is optional in Europe at least) which will take at least nine hours for a full battery. DC fast charging is industry standard, 150kw, meaning 30 minutes for a 10-80 percent boost. 

Page 2: Toyota BZ4X’s features : F1-style steering and a solar roof

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