Although it has been 10 days since the conclusion of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the Toyota bZ4X in front of me is one of the most meaningful models I have test-driven in years. The only one in the country, as the command car for the Olympic torch relay, this bZ4X imported from Japan is quietly parked here waiting for us to arrive after completing its mission.
At the end of last year, Toyota released a number of concept cars of the bZ family, and the first mass-produced model based on the e-TNGA platform, the bZ4X, was unveiled in China as an imported version, of course, in the near future, the bZ4X will also be produced by FAW Toyota. So today we will come to taste the only and meaningful Toyota pure electric "head cannon" in China, what kind of answer will be handed over.
The exterior is a makeover, and the interior is very talkative
If you block the "bull head mark", I don't think many people can guess that this is a Toyota. Compared with the current TNGA architecture family style, the appearance of the bZ4X is completely devoid of Toyota flavor.
After getting rid of the shackles of traditional fuel vehicles, designers can more boldly outline the body line of bZ4X, so that the first masterpiece of the bZ family appears in people's sight.
The closed front face creates a simple and concise style, giving people the illusion that the concept car is directly mass-produced. The design of the short front suspension and short rear suspension on the side makes the bZ4X's body very dry. Coupled with the sneaky rear shape, it has to be said that it is a little less greasy than those traditional SUVs, and a little more avant-garde.
In fact, in the bZ4X, we can still find toyota figures, and some people even joke that they can feel that it has a bit of Lexus charm. However, in my opinion, Toyota bZ4X first caters to the appetite of young people from the appearance, which takes part of the opportunity, and at the moment of "only appearance theory", Toyota bZ4X also has the capital to compete with those new forces.
However, compared to the fashionable and avant-garde appearance, the interior of the bZ4X returns to a simple and calm taste. At the same time, in the main coverage position of the center console, bZ4X replaces the traditional soft plastic wrapping and replaces it with a fabric material, which not only adds a little warmth, but also makes bZ's concept of surpassing zero emissions reflected meticulously.
Although the size of the LCD dashboard is not the largest in terms of speaking, it is expensive to display clearly and fully functional, which is actually the embodiment of the Toyota brand's continuous practicality. However, due to poor ergonomic adjustments, when the driver adjusts the sitting position, the upper part of the steering wheel will cover about one-third of the area under the instrument.
The 12.3-inch central control screen is consistent with the operation logic and interface of most domestic Toyota models, which is very convenient to get started, and the reaction speed and voice recognition degree are remarkable.
However, the topic of concern for pure electric car owners is the heating function. On the top model, bZ4X is equipped with front seats and steering wheel heating functions, in fact, these two functions have been strange, but bZ4X is more intimate to add automatic constant temperature settings, eliminating the "overheating" and repeated adjustment of heating gears.
In addition, the bZ4X uses a heat pump air conditioner, which increases the temperature rise rate in the car in winter, but also further reduces energy consumption. It can be seen that Toyota's people-oriented product concept, rather than some new power models, in order to long-lasting and low-energy data, will not hesitate to abandon the user's car concept.
The four-wheel drive version is not a violent orientation, and comfort is "real Toyota"
As I drove the bZ4X down the first "electric" foot, I knew the familiar Toyota was back. Unlike the violent four-wheel drive version of the P7 and Tesla Model Y, the four-wheel drive version of the bZ4X is more for getting out of trouble in extreme road conditions, rather than adding vertigo to you in the straight.
First of all, the bZ4X's power response is very light, but it is definitely within the controllable range. Compared to the overly sensitive throttle response of most pure electric cars in sport mode, the bZ4X is more stable, and the overall acceleration feels like a large-displacement six-cylinder gasoline engine.
The absolute acceleration performance does not have the momentum of other new forces to break 100 in 4-5 seconds, more calm and unhurried, so the biggest advantage is that more people who have never driven an electric car can easily get started and will not feel any discomfort.
In fact, I think that the 218 horsepower of the front and rear dual motors is enough for this medium-sized bZ4X, after all, I believe that few people will drive a Toyota brand pure electric passenger car on the road unscrupulously "crash straight". More scenes are still in the daily wandering of the city, with family or friends, smooth and safe driving to the destination.
For chassis filtering, it has always been the advantage of TNGA architecture products, even if an extra "e" is added to the front this time. Driving on a relatively flat asphalt road, the ups and downs of the body will be slightly felt by the passengers in the car with the slight fluctuations of the road surface, and when filtering small vibrations and slight undulations, the suspension is quite flexible and comfortable, creating a comfortable riding feeling.
The nVH performance of the bZ4X is equally satisfactory and better than some of the new power models of the same class. Although the tire size of the test drive type is 20 inches and the tire wall is thin, both tire noise and wind noise are well suppressed during medium and high-speed driving. At the same time, the motor noise also wants to be moderate, and it is difficult to detect the beeping motor sound in the car when driving at low speeds. It can be seen that all the product performance of bZ4X is from the user's point of view, maximizing practicality and comfort.
Kanche said: So far, Toyota, a leading car company, has also officially entered the pure electric track, and at present, Volkswagen Kanche understands that FAW Toyota will also produce the model domestically within this year, and the product view of this test drive is limited to the imported version of the model.
In fact, from the performance of its first product, although it does not look so "Toyota" at first glance, it all reveals the taste of TOYOTA. More importantly, we can see from the bZ4X that Toyota is not simply built for the sake of electric vehicles, they still put practicality, people-oriented and other core brand values in the first place, rather than for some eye-catching data or configuration and forget the original intention.