New Car Notes
Written by | Lei Lei
Previously, Akio Toyoda's attitude towards EVs was resistance + exclusion. It has even been publicly stated many times that new energy is over-hyped, and the development of new energy will affect the Japanese economy. In fact, the author also agreed with this view at the time, compared to pure electricity, perhaps all kinds of hybrids are the current car use methods that have almost no endurance anxiety and are easily accepted.
But since last year, in addition to launching new fuel vehicles very aggressively, Toyota has also secretly worked hard (new energy) in places where others can't see. For example, it unveiled 15 electric vehicles at a conference at the end of last year and claimed to launch a pure electric model, the bZ4X, in 2022.
On April 28, FAW Toyota bZ4X arrived as scheduled, with five new models and a pre-sale price of 220,000-300,000. The bZ4X is built on the Toyota e-TNGA pure electric architecture and positions itself as a compact SUV. Here, the author first explains why it is called bZ4X such a bad name: bZ is the abbreviation of "Beyond Zero" (that is, beyond zero emissions), and it is also a new brand sequence created by Toyota's pure electric platform, 4 represents the size level of the vehicle, and X represents its SUV model.
According to the rules of the fuel vehicle era, the joint venture brand compact SUV dares to set a pre-price of up to 300,000, which is already quite confident, so we may wish to take a look at whether FAW Toyota bZ4X is worth it.
The endurance is 615 kilometers, and it can be charged by solar energy
The e-TNGA pure electric architecture has a big selling point, that is, the power battery is integrated into the chassis, with low center of gravity, weight balance before and after, high rigidity and other advantages, can give the vehicle excellent safety and handling.
FAW Toyota bZ4X will provide two types of drive, front-drive and four-wheel drive, the front-drive version has a maximum power of 204 hp, a peak torque of 266 Nm, and zero hundred acceleration of 7.5 seconds; the four-wheel drive version has a maximum power of 217 hp, a peak torque of 337 Nm, and zero hundred acceleration of 6.9 seconds. In terms of endurance, under CLTC conditions, the front-drive model can reach 615 kilometers, and the four-wheel drive model can also reach 560 kilometers. Toyota said that the bZ4X battery can still guarantee 90% of the capacity after 10 years of use, because it has boasted about Haikou to create an electric vehicle that can be used for a long time.
It is worth mentioning that the four-wheel drive model is equipped with the X-MODE four-wheel drive off-road assistance system jointly developed with Subaru, and has a smart creep mode, which can cope with various mild off-road road conditions encountered in the daily use of the car.
In terms of configuration, FAW Toyota bZ4X also continues the tradition of high-end compatibility of TNGA architecture. The new car can choose a high-efficiency solar charging roof, by absorbing the electricity converted by solar energy, the annual power obtained can be used to increase the cruising range of about 1750 kilometers. Although the effect does not seem to be very prominent, fortunately, the application scenarios of this configuration are very extensive, for example, smoking a cigarette in the car at home from work, the electrical appliances in the car can use the electrical energy collected by the solar roof to supply power. For example, when going out to camp, you can turn the car into a mobile charging treasure.
In terms of safety, FAW Toyota bZ4X is equipped with TSS intelligent safety assistance system as standard, including lane departure warning, dynamic radar cruise, lane tracking assistance, high beam automatic control, road sign recognition assistance and other functions, continuing the tradition of rich safety configuration of TNGA architecture.
Many people have questioned whether FAW Toyota bZ4X will be an oil-to-electricity model launched by Toyota in response to the new energy policy. In fact, in addition to the e-TNGA architecture of the new car, the exterior and interior are all completely new designs, and there is no lack of highlights.
The exterior and interior are different from Toyota fuel vehicles
From the appearance point of view, FAW Toyota bZ4X adopts a hanging head shark design style, and the front face looks more sporty than the fuel vehicles sold by Toyota. The headlights consist of multiple lenses, and the upper LED daytime running lights are connected to the front grille. In addition, the almost sealed front face reduces the wind resistance at the same time, but also improves the recognition of its pure electric models.
The two black wheels on the side of the body are particularly eye-catching, and there is a crossover flavor. In addition, unlike traditional SUVs, the A-pillar visual effect of FAW Toyota bZ4X is very thin, the C-pillar angle is very large, and there is a kind of coupe SUV feeling. In terms of body size, its length, width and height are 4690/1860/1650mm, and the wheelbase is 2850mm, which is a typical compact SUV. But because it is built on a pure electric platform, its wheelbase is the same as the Highlander, reaching the level of a medium-sized SUV, which may mean that its interior space is very spacious.
Spoilers are designed on both sides above the rear windshield, which act similarly to the rear wing, and the highlight is that it does not encroach on too much rear view. The addition of through-the-end lights also gives the bZ4X a Lexus feel from the rear. Since it is a pure electric model, there is no exhaust pipe, and the bottom of the rear bar is replaced by two plastic plates, which also echo the spoiler above.
Faw Toyota's bZ4X center console has a familiar shadow of the model under the Toyota TNGA framework, but the overall design is more futuristic. In response to environmental protection, its dashboard is made of woven fabric material in a large area, and although the texture is not as good as leather, it is also a bold attempt. The gear handle is a knob type, which adds a certain storage space for the central control, and retains a large number of physical buttons in the functional areas of the central control - it can be seen that the bZ4X is still very Toyota and pays attention to practicality.
Although the steering wheel adopts a traditional circular design, the layout of the multi-function button area in the middle is more peculiar, and there is a certain difference from the Toyota model we are familiar with.
"Final Talk"
As FAW Toyota's first pure electric vehicle model, Toyota bZ4X still shows many highlights, such as the solar roof, although it is optional, and the power that can be increased is limited, but this has made everyone feel very novel.
In my opinion, the direct competitor after the launch of the new car will be the Volkswagen ID. 4 series, but if you only look at the price, but with Tesla Model 3, Xiaopeng P7, BYD Han EV and other models have competition. Compared with Volkswagen, an old rival, Toyota bZ4X may be able to do its homework at the driving control level, but compared with the new force pure electric models, the advantages of the new car may be more reflected in the brand level.
As for whether bZ4X can be accepted by the market after listing, we will wait and see.
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