Yahoo Autos 10 thoughts on the 2024 Toyota bZ4X
The Toyota bZ4X, the brand’s first mass-market EV, is now in its second model year. This small electric crossover was co-developed alongside the very similar Subaru Solterra, and competes in and increasingly competitive EV segment. We’ve driven it before, and Senior Editor James Riswick even put it through his standard luggage test, fancy bag and all.
I recently spent a week with the Toyota bZ4x, and have a few musings about things that stuck out to me over the course of daily driving duty. Here are 10 thoughts about the Toyota bZ4X.
1. It looks pretty good in gray
The lack of a grille can be a little unsettling when there’s just a smooth, plain surface where you’re expecting to see some sort of variation in color or texture. You get used to it quickly, though, and the rest of the bZ4X’s exterior design is cohesive and attractive. With the black-on-gray motif, I thought it was pretty attractive. It’s not so hot in other colors, like white.
2. The front seats are excellent
The seats left a great first impression while sitting inside the bZ4X. The driver’s seat feels like it was perfectly contoured and padded to support my body comfortably, providing solid contact between my whole back/backside and the upholstery. That good impression was a lasting one, too, as it felt just as wonderful after longer drives.
3. Acceleration is totally fine
The dual-motor bZ4x provides 214 horsepower and 248 pound-feet of torque. That doesn’t really seem like a lot, but don’t worry. Toyota claims a 0-60 time of 6.5 seconds for the bZ4X with AWD, but we wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a conservative estimate. Acceleration feels especially quick at around-town speeds, and certainly remains adequate when merging onto the highway.
4. It could use a true one-pedal driving experience
It has an increased regen button that does add a little more regen, but it’s not very aggressive, and it definitely won’t bring the car to a complete stop. Plus, if the car is fully charged, it won’t let you use it anyway (that’s not unusual for an EV). I’ve grown to love the option of one-pedal driving in EVs. When available, I find I use it about 50% of the time, switching between one-pedal and low-regen driving modes depending on the situation and my mood. Moot point here, as there’s no one-pedal setup in the bZ4x.
5. The range-to-price calculation could be better
The base version of the bZ4X is pretty practical, with the $44,420 XLE providing 252 miles of EPA-rated driving range while still offering decent winter driving thanks to front-wheel drive. Add all-wheel drive to the XLE (for a total of $46,500), and range drops to 228. The higher Limited trim with FWD ($48,530) gets 236 miles, or 222 miles with AWD (at $50,610).
And I was driving that Limited AWD … in the winter. It wasn’t super cold — it rained that week, after all — but I still wasn’t getting anywhere close to even 200 miles of range. I saw closer to 180 miles of range indicated when I did get in the car fully charged. I suppose I could have convinced the computer to indicate more miles if I drove more economically and used the climate control sparingly.
Granted, I don’t drive 180 miles most days, and public chargers exist, but I could get any number of other EVs and get considerably more range — and performance — for the price.
