Toyota BZ4X: They'd Rather Make Hybrids!

Toyota technically makes 1 electric car but it really feels like they don't want to

Thank you to Denvix for sponsoring this video

Shot on iPhone 15 Pro

[paulg]

PS: This review won't/can't kill TOYOTA 🤣

[freescape]

This definitely feels like Toyota telling everyone "fine, you asked for an ev, you get an ev and all its shortcomings." Just to compare it to what they can do with a hybrid.

[RayR-ggkj]

I had a front-wheel drive BZ4X for seven months. I agree with the reviewer here--it drove beautifully. It was comfortable, solid, spacious, and quick. It drove like a Toyota. It was well-made (piano black notwithstanding).

I bought the front-wheel drive version for the 252-mile range and the promised 30-minute charging from 20 to 80 percent. Then I took it on my first road trip in the cool weather. At 55 degrees (not that cold), I got no more than 60kw charging speed (out of a promised 150), and it dropped from there. It took me 25 minutes to add 30% battery charge. Had I needed a full charge, it would have taken well over an hour.

In my warm-weather road trip in September, the car charged as promised. But I realized that this car simply can't manage road trips in anything but summer weather--unless I was willing to wait for an hour to an hour and a half to charge.

One thing the reviewer did not mention is that the BZ4X does not have battery preconditioning, so the temperature will greatly affect charging speeds. If it's at all cool out, this thing will charge at the pace of a snail.

I loved this car, but it made me really angry that the car fell so short of its promise. I could not continue making payments on a car that I could not take on a road trip. I traded it for a Kia EV6--longer range, much quicker charging speeds, with battery preconditioning.

The reviewer is right here--the range and charging speeds are deal-breakers if you want to be able to use a BZ for road trips. If you just want a 200-mile EV that you charge at home, it's excellent. Just think that through carefully before buying.

[nielskersic]

At least Toyota is honest. They even put “Limited” on the back lol

[camejuanm]

Having piano black ini places where you touch is a sin.

[Twin.motors]

The range isn't the problem. It's the fact that it CANNOT be used for road trips as the battery locks you out if you fast charge more than once in a 10 hour period. Insane

[agressiv]

I have the RZ450e, the Lexus version of this. Its range is even less than the BZ4X, but I got it for $16k off the lease price because nobody is buying them - people want the RX350h or RX450h which are ~$20-25k more expensive. With the RZ450e, you automatically get "Lexus Reserve", a program good for 3 years where you can get a loaner Lexus (ICE) car if you want to take a road trip - at no additional cost. 30 days total, so I could easily take four 7-day road trips over 3 years. With this I took a 10k mileage lease. I don't take a ton of road trips, so this is good enough for me.

[julianfontaine]

Lets give Markus a shout out for starting the video with the problem instead of making us wait till the end 👏🏼👏🏼

[AaronGable]

I drove a 2005 Prius for fifteen years, and when it came time to replace it with something with more clearance for camping trips, I was super excited about the BZ4X. And then ran smack into the same problem: the range. You can't drive it far enough to really get to the backcountry from home, and you can't charge it fast enough to just do a pitstop at the last edge of civilization.

So instead we got a Rav4 Prime (with 650 miles of range between the tank + the battery) and it's been perfect. Enough battery to never burn gas for daily trips around town; enough gas to never be stranded on the big trips.

Edit: I should add: we're a single-car family. If we were willing to have two cars, one would absolutely be full electric. And we do gas-burning trips at least every other week, between skiing in the winter and camping in the summer, so just renting/borrowing a gas car for rare long trips isn't an option either. Anyway, i really look forward to this country having ubiquitous charging infrastructure... someday...

[MrGenobi]

Just my 2 cents as someone who has owned a 225mi range EV for about 8 years (2015 model s). If you can charge at home, for us even when commuting 120mi a day to work, it works perfectly. For the 1 time a year when it’s not enough, use the other car. But I won’t buy a car based on .3% of its usage. If we did, we would own a giant cab long bed diesel truck (great for those who do, it’s not for us). As for comparing it to its competitors, totally, range is a great metric. But 250mi of range doesn’t make it a deal killer for me.

[MrDaveVendetta]

I bought one 2 weeks ago. $200/month lease. The free charging for a year makes it a steal. I have the XLE and the Toyota dealers in Northern California are giving up to $20k in incentives. Don’t let the range turn you away. I get 220-230 miles real world. Between the level 2 charger they gave me and the free public charging I don’t worry about the range at all.

[kenng]

I just leased a 2024 Bz4x FWD for $220 per month for 36 months and 12k miles per year and $0 at signing out the door on top of a 1 year free complimentary super charge at EVgo. You're correct with the DC charging speed and range, but it's a huge upgrade for me in term of a commute vehicle from a 2005 Toyota sienna van. I have solar panels on my house's roof & L2 charging and also Tesla M3 and MY in my family.

[matthewprather]

Rode in a BZ4X used as a taxi/ ride share recently while in Portugal. Seemed like a good use for the car - probably will last forever in that kind of use. Even longer than a Prius. Comfortable and very quiet but otherwise unremarkable - typical Toyota.

[petergronvall]

That piano black is dangerously shiny, yeeshh.

[AvocadoAtrocity]

They're all over NYC area, because of the insane promos they had 😅😅😅

[orji_ck]

What is absolutely entertaining about your videos is your ability to keep me watching till the end. With most other videos I often tune off midway.

[vprojects]

I have been driving a BZ4X for about 6 months and 7500 km. I agree 100% with you on everything you mentioned in your video. I have the AWD and it's great during winter, no problems with snow or ice. ( I live in Norway). Oddly enough this is the second best selling car in February and March 2024 (behind the model Y) here in Norway. This is probably due to some good financing deals in addition to the very good performance in snow. (but charging in cold weather is super slow)

[bnoss]

I work at a Toyota dealership and I usually use ours to do little errands around the city and it’s my first choice other than a PHEV Prius to take out when I handover new cars outside of our showroom (public parking is free for electric vehicles here).
The range is an issue yes, and I wouldn’t recommend our customers to get one for that exact one reason, but for city use it is a pretty good driving experience. Handling, acceleration, comfort, luggage space and most importantly tech are all great in my opinion, our drive assist system is s godsend by our engineers in heavy traffic. It’s just a shame it can’t be driven over longer trips, if the bZ4X could do that I would probably prefer it over our other models

[chinaman]

Here's what a Toyota factory manager told me when I visted him in their plant in Indonesia.
This was during all the EV hype about 3-4 years ago.
We were targeting auto manufacturers to try and get them to invest in some new EV related equipment.
The Japanese guy who was one of the top dude in Toyota Indonesia just told me when I asked him "so is Toyota producing EVs in Japan?" he just informed to me "they have no interest in EVs, it's a technology in its infancy still, and they feel that there will be too much R&D involved to get it to a level where people will be happy with the tech. Also, they don't trust the tech to be "green" enough. The battery is definitely cleaner than a petrol car, but it's not gonna be clean when you remove it from the car when the car is scrapped or goes to the dump.

[dantegianoli]

I have one and I like it my wife loves it but I do agree the range is the Aquiles we went from LA to Vegas and it gave us so much range anxiety! However as a daily commute is fine ! However I loved my moms RAV4 prime we end up borrowing that one for long trips lol