Featured Toyota bZ4X Specifications Revealed

Trade-in for a Tesla Model 3? <rim shot>

Bob Wilson

 

The blind spot monitoring didn't become standard until the Ioniq with it came out.

 

2023 Toyota bZ4X Priced From $42,000 In The United States

Thread is so long I wasn't sure if the US numbers got quoted.

Highway which is most important to range falls far short of the tesla model Y's 117 mpge, but is around the kona electric and better than the volkswagen ID.4 and Ford Mach-E. With tesla raising prices because of such high demand, I doubt it will hurt it for awhile.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=45018&id=44444&id=45259&id=45144

Regeneration is not totally predictable at low speeds, so I would expect friction brakes to be used. Toyota already does this blending thing in their hybrids. I have no idea why they would not copy tesla and allow a setting option to have the car stop, creep, or roll when speeds get low. Autobraking should be a user option. Damn the lawyers

 

Was considering this model and ditch my Highlander Hybrid. Question???????
Do dealers offer charging?
Looks like the supposedly free charge network is missing on many interstates.

And is free really free for one year. Was also looking at the IONIQ5 and it is unclear if you have to pay a $4 per month fee!!!

Did notice some important Prius features made it to the new vehicle. But was wondering on the vehicle proximity alert that I think was on the INOIQ 5 and not the bZ4X // maybe ???

Side note, I have been complaining for years that nobody cares about the most important things in life.
Auto stop at slow speeds forward and backward should have been on every vehicle made since it was first developed. I remember in the 90's seeing commercials on that for a van??????

 

NEVER count on dealership charging, much less it being free
1- dealerships change their mind and then may charge fees down the road anyway.
2- invariably dealers will park cars in the charging stalls. It might be a salesman's car, a car that's for sale, a car of another customer, etc
3- most dealerships are locked up at night so you can't get to the charger anyways - if they weren't blocked.
.

 

Charging an EV can be an enigma! It can work well for some people and really suck bass for others. It's just another one of those things in life that you have go experience for yourself to get a better handle on how it's going to work for you with your general routines and longer trips.

Even using a web site or app like plugshare.com can present unforeseen issues when you actually get to a charger that you have picked to use for the first time. And or stopping on a road trip to charge at an EV charging station.

Using different dealers chargers was one of the first things I leaned about while driving our 2014 Prius Plugin. It wasn't a pleasant experience at most of them. And I've since written off bothering to even check if a dealer offers public charging in our local area. - It could be very different situation in other areas of the country.

Networks are the same or very similar. You just can't tell all the time how well or how poorly they are going to work for anyone else. All one can do is give general feedback as to how well or poorly a network has worked to them in their area. Leaving the reader to experience how the network will work for them when they actually need it to charge their EV.

 

RZ450e was revealed today. It puts those who complained about power asking "why didn't Toyota" in an awkward position. Because it turns out, Toyota did.

bZ4X offers two configurations. FWD has a 150 kW motor in front. AWD has two 80 kW motors, one in front and the other in back. The bewilderment of reviews is why didn't Toyota just put another 80 kW motor in the back of the FWD to make the AWD? That reality of cost & weight was simply dismissed as unimportant, as was how that shifted focus from need to want... which is something a luxury model would offer instead.

RZ450e does exactly that. You get that 150 kW motor in front and an 80 kW in back.

Makes you wonder if those same people who complained will acknowledge that Toyota didn't drop the ball or miss opportunity. It was really a matter of looking at the bigger picture and showing some patience (waiting just 8 days). Some of us had already speculated Toyota will do exactly what they revealed today.

 

Toyota is the #1 automaker in the world for a reason. Something like that doesn't happen by accident!

Toyota Remains the World’s Largest Automaker - The Detroit Bureau

What lies ahead in 2022
But Toyota remains bullish, expecting to produce 11 million units for its new fiscal year, which begins in April, according to a published report in the Nikkei newspaper. Whether COVID-19 and its variants allow that to happen remains to be seen.

This contrasts with sentiments at Volkswagen, with the automaker expecting chip shortages to continue into 2023. Given this expectation, VW expects 2022 production of as much as 9 million units, according to German business magazine, Manager Magazin. But that’s if things go as expected. The report suggests that production could drop to 8 million units should the situation deteriorate.

 

Will it have the DC charge rate of the FWD bZ4X or the AWD model?

I understand the criticism of BEVs being over powered, but in the case of bZ4X, and likely others, DC charge rates seem to be linked to motor output for cost savings in putting a DC-DC converter to dual duty.

 

It also illustrates that to build a car with more power and faster charging is typically more expensive to produce. Anything new here with that concept? or business practice?

 

About a week ago Nikkei Asia reported that Toyota was projecting a 10% global reduction in output over their previous April projections of a 17% cut.

These numbers are very suspicious to me because I have two of the country's largest Toyota dealerships near me. We're talking dealerships that move 2,000+ vehicles some months. They've reported to me that their allocation from Toyota for May is under 20 vehicles. Not 20 of each model, but 20 vehicles total. That's a 90% cut, not 10% or 17%.

I thought perhaps Toyota might be trying to keep the smaller dealerships afloat, but my two local dealership's lots are bare. They literally have 0 new cars. Not even on the showroom floor.

If the production numbers are accurate, where are they going?

 

yet they are advertising more than ever

 

They have been hounding me to sell them my 2021 Prius, but they never have an answer when I ask them "and replace it with what?"

 

Japan? Europe?

Are the cars and trucks Toyota still making ones that sell in California? An all new Tundra just came out.

 

Globally.

EDIT - It occurs to me you may mean where they're going. That I don't know. Cutting the US market back by 90% would sure do a lot to keep them supplied elsewhere. I wonder how the US Toyota sales numbers for March compare to other global regions.

 

Those commercial contracts may have been bought and paid for months ago.

 

probably, but months ago, we were in the same situation. i think they just want to get people in and get a deposit for a build.
someone here mentioned only 3 months from order to delivery. they may have been fortunate though

 

They're not even doing that around here for any models I'm looking for: a RAV4 Prime and a Sienna LE. They just say, "We don't have any of those. Good luck!"