Toyota is going electric. All-electric, that is.
(Toyota)
The automaker, which has a full lineup of hybrid vehicles along with several plug-in hybrids and one with an electric motor that runs off of hydrogen fuel cells will introduce a purely battery-powered attributes model in 2022.
The bZX4 – bZ short for Beyond Zero, its new EV sub brand – is the sneak-peek concept for an upcoming vehicle that’s roughly the size of the brand’s best-selling Rav4. Toyota’s last all-electric vehicle was the low-volume Rav4 EV, which was last available in 2014.
(Toyota)
Toyota hasn’t released technical details yet, but said the bZX4 will be built in China and Japan and exported to the United States from one of those locations starting in 2022.
(Toyota)
The exterior styling appears to be a more aggressive version of the Rav4’s, while Toyota said the interior was designed to be airy and features a gauge cluster pod on the top of the dashboard meant to be viewed over the steering wheel.
Toyota is aiming to have 70 percent of its global lineup “electrified” by 2030, but hasn’t committed to going all-electric like some automakers. I said that fully electric cars aren’t right for certain customers, like those who live in apartments and don’t have a place to plug them in, and also cites data from the Argonne National Laboratory that determined the cradle to grave carbon output of a plug-in hybrid can actually be lower than a full-electric vehicle’s.