Toyota BZ 4X
Source: Toyota Motor Corp.
Source: Toyota Motor Corp.
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Toyota Motor Corp accelerates its push into electric vehicles with the release of its first SUV built on a new EV platform, and joins Volkswagen AG’s flashy bet on the future of electric cars.
The largest carmaker in the world watched a preview of its ‘bZ4X’, an electric sports utility vehicle that sat on its new vehicle ‘E-TNGA platform Monday at the Shanghai Auto Show in 2021. The vehicle is a compact SUV that looks like Toyota’s popular Rav-4, but is built on a brand new platform and features a distinctive yoke in instead of a traditional steering wheel, as well as a system that can recharge the car’s battery with solar power.
By 2025, Toyota plans to introduce 15 EVs, including seven models of the “bZ” range worldwide, Toyota chief technology officer Masahiko Maeda said at a briefing on Monday. The bZ4X is, according to Toyota, the first of the “bZ” series, which stands for “outside zero”, or cars that are “just zero emissions”.
Toyota plans to manufacture the bZ4X in Japan and China and sell it worldwide by mid-2022.
Toyota’s move comes as the major automaker in the direction of electrification, with countries from Japan to the UK undertaking in the coming decades to phase out vehicles that are only petrol. So far, the hybrid heavyweight Toyota has taken a more cautious approach to EVs, but that is starting to change with the latest debut. In comparison, Volkswagen, Toyota’s biggest global competitor, announced last month: a $ 29 billion has been spent on new battery technology to accelerate the shift to EVs.
“Toyota is not behind Volkswagen and others in terms of EV development, but just as outspoken as others,” said Bloomberg analyst Tatsuo Yoshida. “The ambitious announcement for new models was a surprise, but it was only Toyota that finally revealed what it had been working on for some time.”
The Japanese carmaker says the e-TNGA platform will speed up the implementation of new cars, reduce development time and design different models in parallel. The platform can be fitted to a wide range of vehicle sizes, and although certain key elements remain fixed, the battery and electric motor – the most expensive parts of an EV – can be adjusted according to the model.
The ability to manufacture cars of different prices and sizes based on its modular platform, Toyota will offer the ability to reach a larger number of consumers – younger consumers in China smaller and cheaper models like the $ 4,230 SAIC Motor Corp.-General Motors claims Hongguang Mini EV. The e-TNGA platform is a similar approach to that used by Volkswagen with the MEB car platform, which is used by the German carmaker and its subsidiaries for the development of electric cars.
Source: Toyota Motor Corp.
“In the years since we first introduced the Prius, we have not stepped forward with any technology, but rather have prepared numerous options, including fuel cell, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles,” said Maeda of Toyota. By 2025, the company will expand its number of electrified models, which include hybrids, to about 70.
(Updates with comments from Toyota, analyst, context all the time)