[Tokyodrift]

The first BZ4X reviews are flowing in.

The dash display looks too similar to Volkswagen ID series, did they need to put almost exactly same one?
Otherwise like the center display, leg heating and space in the back.

 

[meetyg]

Am I the only one that thinks that the Toyota and Subaru are a bit disappointing?

Both manufacturers jumped on the boat a bit late, but I expected them to learn alot from their competition. As far as I can tell, there really isn't anything new/special in these cousins.
Maybe the 4wd Subaru has some fancy tech for off-roading, but I would be reluctant to take an SUV style EV off road.
The range is pretty disappointing too...

The steering wheel looks plasticy, like it from the 90's.
The exterior design reminds me alot of the current Toyota Rav4... again nothing impressive.
What do you think?

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Personally I'd not ever buy a Toyota again anyway. We've owned 5 over the years, all very reliable, but the way that Toyota coined that fake "self-charging hybrid" crap in their advertising annoyed me so much that both my wife and I got rid of our Toyota's and vowed never to ever buy one in future.

 

[DSLRed]

Am I the only one that thinks that the Toyota and Subaru are a bit disappointing?

Both manufacturers jumped on the boat a bit late, but I expected them to learn alot from their competition. As far as I can tell, there really isn't anything new/special in these cousins.
Maybe the 4wd Subaru has some fancy tech for off-roading, but I would be reluctant to take an SUV style EV off road.
The range is pretty disappointing too...

The steering wheel looks plasticy, like it from the 90's.
The exterior design reminds me alot of the current Toyota Rav4... again nothing impressive.
What do you think?

No, you're not the only one. I don't like the interior at all.

Which is good, because like @Jeremy Harris, I'd never consider a Toyota after all their shitfuckery on self charging hybrids and their actively spending money on greasing the palms of politicians to slow down the uptake of EVs.

 

[Electrohead]

VW and Toyota. Its the evil of two lessers!

 

[meetyg]

No, you're not the only one. I don't like the interior at all.

Which is good, because like @Jeremy Harris, I'd never consider a Toyota after all their shitfuckery on self charging hybrids and their actively spending money on greasing the palms of politicians to slow down the uptake of EVs.

And... selling the hydrogen dream to the world.

 

[Jon Chalk]

InsideEVs review; summary - underwhelming

2023 Toyota bZ4X First Drive Review: Competent, But Invisible

Toyota’s first volume EV faces off against compact electric SUVs from Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, and others to come; it drives adequately, but blazes no new ground

insideevs.com

Toyota not going all in on EVs yet - still protecting / promoting their ICE/hybrids.

 

[Jon Chalk]

..and Edmunds YT review; summary - underwhelming, better alternatives

......plus loads more US review on YT, but nothing from Europe yet - Toyota afraid of the competition ?

 

[cah197]

Personally I'd not ever buy a Toyota again anyway. We've owned 5 over the years, all very reliable, but the way that Toyota coined that fake "self-charging hybrid" crap in their advertising annoyed me so much that both my wife and I got rid of our Toyota's and vowed never to ever buy one in future.

I remember loving my Prius, but getting back into one was a shock now.

Too tinny and a horrible dash interface.

Drove a 71 plate Honda Civic the other week. Also terrible! How can they even build a car like this in 2022?

The interior of this Toyota BEV is a bit of a car crash as well. Would be fine in the early 2010s, but not now.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Main thing about the Prius for me was that it was a pretty good car for the long distance commuting I was doing at the time. I bought the first one when working at Abbey Wood and commuting there and back each day from Porton, next commute was Yeovil and back each day, then Shrivenham and back each day, and when building this house I was doing about 16 miles each way, in the plug in version. Pretty boring car, but they were all extremely reliable (no faults with any of them) and also pretty economical.

Great pity that Toyota didn't choose to maintain the development pace they set with the "millennium project" in the 1990s, that led to the Prius, as their original plan was for the Prius to be the gateway into producing proper EVs, by allowing them to gain knowledge of electric power train systems. Seems there was a change of management policy within Toyota around 15 or so years ago that led to them pretty much shelving their EV programme. Probably the very biggest mistake Toyota have made in their entire history.

 

[DSLRed]

The interior of this Toyota BEV is a bit of a car crash as well. Would be fine in the early 2010s, but not now.

The interior of the Bz4X strikes me as trying too hard. It just doesn't work.

 

[Tokyodrift]

..and Edmunds YT review; summary - underwhelming, better alternatives

......plus loads more US review on YT, but nothing from Europe yet - Toyota afraid of the competition ?

InsideEVs review; summary - underwhelming

2023 Toyota bZ4X First Drive Review: Competent, But Invisible

Toyota’s first volume EV faces off against compact electric SUVs from Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, and others to come; it drives adequately, but blazes no new ground

insideevs.com

Toyota not going all in on EVs yet - still protecting / promoting their ICE/hybrids.

In a market where BEV is still a niche product accounting for about 10% of total new car sales, it doesn't make sense for number 1 car manufacturer in the world to go all-in. You can't risk 90% of sales to pursue 10% of sales, would be dumb.

Toyota probably marketing in US first because Toyota very big in the U.S. and U.S. is one single unified market, much easier to launch in than Europe where you need to deal with 30 different countries, 30 different networks, high customs fees and so on.

BZ4X may not be perfect, but if you look at Toyota line-up, none of their cars are.
For every car Toyota offers, competitors offer more desirable or more affordable alternatives.
If you want to understand Toyota's success, need to look beyond the individual cars, understand why people end up buying Toyota.


Tesla can deliver excitement and cars with different perspective and innovative design. Eventually though, excitement becomes boring and frequent visits to Tesla dealership for issues after issues and growing frustration of owners will push owners to consider alternatives. People who can afford Tesla don't like wasting time, and start thinking they would prefer less initial excitement but more long-term stability.
Same as young girls who enjoy bad boys with lots of troubles when young but then settle and build families with boring good guys.

Toyota already committed to BEV market back when they first invested in Tesla and more recently reaffirmed by presenting a huge line-up of models.
In 3 years they will have 4 times more models than Tesla. Game is on and I think in few years, Toyota will top BEV sales charts.
I think Toyota will be the company that takes BEV's out of the niche and into the main market.
They are planning to deliver triple current Tesla EV sales within 7 years, solid-state within 5 years, while Tesla management is busy trying to make climate-change deniers win elections in 2024...
Between Musk and Toyoda, I feel commitment to EV's and fight against climate change is much stronger from Toyoda and not even in same ballpark.
In 7 years, Musk will have moved on to something else, next business adventure of political career, who knows, Tesla stuck in niche and Toyota will still be one of top car companies and probably one of top BEV manufacturers and building niche in hydrogen.

 

[phil-ev]

Tesla can deliver excitement and cars with different perspective and innovative design. Eventually though, excitement becomes boring and frequent visits to Tesla dealership for issues after issues and growing frustration of owners will push owners to consider alternatives. People who can afford Tesla don't like wasting time, and start thinking they would prefer less initial excitement but more long-term stability.
Same as young girls who enjoy bad boys with lots of troubles when young but then settle and build families with boring good guys.

I love how it's your own thread on the BZ4X and somehow you've managed to go off topic to cram in a bash on Tesla. 🤣

Anyway has no one commented on the dashboard? Like WTF is going on here my eyes 🙈

It's no Model 3 😉

 

[Jeremy Harris]

That Toyota dash looks like something from 20 or 30 years ago. Seems that Toyota has seriously lost the plot, not only are they a decade or so behind on EV technology, but they are a couple of decades behind on design.

 

[Tooks]

Tesla can deliver excitement and cars with different perspective and innovative design. Eventually though, excitement becomes boring and frequent visits to Tesla dealership for issues after issues and growing frustration of owners will push owners to consider alternatives. People who can afford Tesla don't like wasting time, and start thinking they would prefer less initial excitement but more long-term stability.
Same as young girls who enjoy bad boys with lots of troubles when young but then settle and build families with boring good guys.

Toyota already committed to BEV market back when they first invested in Tesla and more recently reaffirmed by presenting a huge line-up of models.
In 3 years they will have 4 times more models than Tesla. Game is on and I think in few years, Toyota will top BEV sales charts.
I think Toyota will be the company that takes BEV's out of the niche and into the main market.
They are planning to deliver triple current Tesla EV sales within 7 years, solid-state within 5 years, while Tesla management is busy trying to make climate-change deniers win elections in 2024...
Between Musk and Toyoda, I feel commitment to EV's and fight against climate change is much stronger from Toyoda and not even in same ballpark.
In 7 years, Musk will have moved on to something else, next business adventure of political career, who knows, Tesla stuck in niche and Toyota will still be one of top car companies and probably one of top BEV manufacturers and building niche in hydrogen.

You and Tesla have some unresolved sexual tension, perhaps you should consider getting a room?! 😂

 

[Tokyodrift]

I love how it's your own thread on the BZ4X and somehow you've managed to go off topic to cram in a bash on Tesla. 🤣

Anyway has no one commented on the dashboard? Like WTF is going on here my eyes 🙈

View attachment 160550


It's no Model 3 😉

View attachment 160551

Perfect example of misleading Tesla PR. You are Tesla PR right?

You are comparing low resolution picture with rendering.

I can do the same and make Model 3 look like Flintstones Mobile.

In my opinion, Model 3 had its time but now looks outdated and cheap, can't make it out of niche market with such product.
Steering wheel knobs, funeral home wood panel, no driver display.


Toyota BZ4X dash presents new ergonomy. Instead of looking through steering wheel, you look over, similar to ZE0 Nissan Leaf with speed display.
It's actually very smart, need to try it to say if it works but works very well on ZE0 Leaf, you can see speed and other information without looking away.

Model 3 design for dash does not work for me, it's like they forgot to put driver display and Model 3 sales now dropping so it seems novelty wearing off, short-time wonder.
Fans can accept but good luck trying to win over ICE crowd.


From 2025 I expect Toyota will lead EV sales.
Don't like Volkswagen ID-shaped driver display on BZ4X, but ergonomy looks excellent.

 

[DSLRed]

Perfect example of misleading Tesla PR. You are Tesla PR right?

You are comparing low resolution picture with rendering.

I can do the same and make Model 3 look like Flintstones Mobile.

I like how your picture of the BZ4X hides the abortion of a steering rack and all its ugly paraphernalia in the dark. Is that the only way to make it look acceptable?

You can try and defend it all you like. It's still bloody horrible.

 

[Electrohead]

Toyota already committed to BEV market back when they first invested in Tesla and more recently reaffirmed by presenting a huge line-up of models.
In 3 years they will have 4 times more models than Tesla. Game is on and I think in few years, Toyota will top BEV sales charts.
I think Toyota will be the company that takes BEV's out of the niche and into the main market.
They are planning to deliver triple current Tesla EV sales within 7 years, solid-state within 5 years, while Tesla management is busy trying to make climate-change deniers win elections in 2024...
Between Musk and Toyoda, I feel commitment to EV's and fight against climate change is much stronger from Toyoda and not even in same ballpark.
In 7 years, Musk will have moved on to something else, next business adventure of political career, who knows, Tesla stuck in niche and Toyota will still be one of top car companies and probably one of top BEV manufacturers and building niche in hydrogen.

Do you read this stuff before you post it to see if it makes any sense- at all? I mean if you are going to bash Tesla at least make some sort of coherent argument.

Toyota can plan to deliver triple Tesla's current sales in 7 years but Tesla will have doubled their current sales by year end and will be considerably bigger than triple their current size in 7 years.

Toyota will take EVs into the main market. Really? I think that's happened already when approx 20% of new cars sold in europe are already EVs

Toyoda is more committed to climate change. Really? Toyota is facing boycotts over its fight to slow electric vehicle progress

Not sure why you are so invested in a company that is so nakedly cynical and unethical as Toyota.

Keep drinking the Kool-Aid.

 

[Tokyodrift]

I like how your picture of the BZ4X hides the abortion of a steering rack and all its ugly paraphernalia in the dark. Is that the only way to make it look acceptable?

You can try and defend it all you like. It's still bloody horrible.

BZ4X has no steering rack, it's steer-by-wire.
This features also allows yoke to work on BZ4X while Tesla failed with their low-tech yoke.
At low speeds, BZ4X same yoke travel gives larger wheel angle change, so you don't need to drive like you're trying to catch a flying boomerang.

I'm not going to defend Toyota's design, it has some things I like, some I don't, I don't really care, I just know this will sell.
Calling it horrible makes you sound like drama queen and I wonder how you can survive driving a Soul which has probably one of worst interior and exterior designs of current EV's.


Tesla is starting to get seriously behind traditional car makers and design for sake of originality coming at expense of safety.

Toyota fixes Tesla's 'yoke' steering wheel in its first electric SUV with steer-by-wire system

Toyota has unveiled a steering wheel similar to Tesla’s “yoke” steering wheel in its first electric SUV, but the automaker has introduced an important feature that fixes the main problem of the Tesla yoke. When Tesla unveiled the new Model S with the “yoke” butterfly steering wheel, it was...

electrek.co

 

[Tooks]

Toyota BZ4X dash presents new ergonomy.

No, it presents Japanese quirky styling, which I’m ok with, but that dashboard layout and choice of materials presents a face that only a mother could love.

Or a Toyota shill, obviously.