Featured Munro on bZ4X

cargo coverstorage like my 2004 prius, genius!

radint heat sounds interesting, but no glovebox? c'mon man!

cloth dash, is this a prototype that will never see production? (i hope)

thinking about these complicated new systems, i would want a 10/150 warranty on everything

 

I think every cargo cover in my cars had a place to store it. I actually don't care much for under the floor storage. There is nearly always something already in the back, or an extra cargo mat that needed to be moved first. Best solution I saw was a retractable cover built into the side wall of the cargo area. It was a small hatch, so i don't know how practical it would be for larger.

The cloth dash is cause of the Lexus like pricing. There are better options to be fancy, yet easy to care for.

What new systems? The ECU just has the charger built in instead of separate. I don't think the heat pump is any more complicated than the one in the Primes. Those didn't use anything new to the heat pump world, and I doubt they did so here. What appears to be extra plumbing might be because it scavenges from the motor, battery, and other components. Or the bits had nothing to do with the HVAC; could be to the cooling the battery cooling system.

 

I was expecting more from a Munro video, but they haven't actually dug into the car yet.

 

The lower-level of the center-console is quite large, a fact often overlooked.

Cloth provides a thermal benefit, providing a better means of dealing with heat.

 

This isn't much different than Gen-1 Prius rollout. It too had a very targeted consumer, of which you are not. Toyota was going for wide audience reach or appealing to enthusiasts. Ask a RAV4 owner what they think of bZ4X.

Limiting scope can be a very effective means of ensuring long-term well being is addressed. Right now, we are still seeing a state of disarray from the larger industry (automakers & infrastructure). Absence of clear priorities, limited resources, and disagreement upon standards are ensuring the pandemonium continues for a few more years.

In the meantime, Toyota can work out details for their "clean sheet" design(s) to ensure optimization for cost & efficiency really does translate to variety their customers will want. Looking at what VW is pursuing in terms of product diversity, it's quite obvious they want to exploit Tesla's current absence of choice weakness either.

Realistically, it doesn't matter. We'll watch the spectacle GM will make of itself with their intension to deliver something for the masses. Everyone has already seemed to have forgotten the initial rollout of Equinox was promised to begin "Spring 2023" as stated in their television commercial last fall. Even late, that effort to appeal to their own base is still a really big deal.

In other words, the videos now aren't of much consequence. Watch what you want and continue to promote plugging in whatever way you can.

 

<mega sigh>

 

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

 

I prefer whine, at least, that’s Mrs b’s opinion

 

Must have been sweet as an engineer to be able to concentrate on a single platform and have carte blanche to improve on it. A single source pipeline of management must have also been nice as you'd only have to tell somebody once what you were working on and towards. Probably only took a couple of months to have someone fully trust you to do your job and without a million meetings .

Working with multiple government agencies over 39 years, sometimes it would take a couple of years to get trusted enough to let you do your job without intense oversight and a zillion meetings.

Here's a video about taking the bZ4X AWD on a 1000 km (621.4 miles) road trip in Norway.

Spoiler alert, yes it made it and it wasn't the slowest he's tested but still took a little over 14 hours. The AWD bZ4X has the CATL made battery cells and it is limited to 2 DC fast charges in 24 hours before seriously throttling it down but Björn managed to fake it out by using an L2 charger and then getting a somewhat faster DC fast charge on his next charge. Also the CATL celled battery is usually limited to 100 kW or less but using Ionity chargers, he was getting 111 kW at some point. Toyota is also really aggressive about keeping this battery cool, and the sweet spot seems to be between 10 and 18ºC for charging speed.

edited to add a video detailing a road trip with the bZ4X.

 

My grandfather used to talk like that ('I don't have a lot of time') when he was in his 60s. He lived well into his 90s, with reasonably good health and a sharp mind until the very end. Fortunately, like it appears to be the case with you, despite all his complaining about age he always lived his life to the fullest. I'm wondering if that helped contribute to his longevity.

 

Beautiful car ..... Great video. But if Toyota can't / won't increase charging dynamics? This beautiful car will suffer the same fate as Toyota's Scion EV .... people can buy so many different EV's nowadays that go MUCH farther & charge MUCH faster .... which makes changing to ev much more ubiquitous to a Gasser. Like Bjorn says .... you really have to drive this like a "Toyota". Now if this car were competing in the year 2011 against the leaf? Surly it would win hands down. But ev tech has moved on over the past decade.
Lastly - if it's just software that's crippling the car .... and charge dynamics can be curred via updates? That may save the day. If so - hope you can get it OTA ... as manufacturers have been doing that for years now.
.

 

This is why toyota is developing an ev platform from the ground up. They need to think like what is the best BEV vehicle we can produce at a price, not lets make it like the rav4 but with extra batteries. In many ways the rav4 prime is more desirable than this vehicle. Manufacturing costs are probably too high for that right now. That new platform should lower manufacturing cost. They need to produce US or Canada to get the EV tax credit, otherwise it is at a big price disadvantage to the model Y.

2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 vs. 2022 Toyota bZ4X: Small EV SUVs Compared!

Motortrend liked the more traditional dash layout and the suspension better than the hyundai. Some people don't care about charging speed and will always charge at home. That leaves a large market for toyota if they get this right on the next update. The vehicle appears to need more sound deadening, but people can just turn up the stereo. Toyota should be able to sell a lot of the next generation if they can get costs down.

 

And Sandy Munro's actual experience with the bZ4X after taking it home for the night.

Sandy Munro Talks Toyota bZ4X After Driving It For First Time

In short the Pros:
"Starting with the good stuff, Munro liked the interior of the bZ4X. He describes the seats as uber comfortable and likes the cloth decor on the dashboard.

The bZ4X also scores points thanks to the well-appointed interior and fact the low-set steering wheel does not obstruct the driver's view of the instrument cluster. He also mentions minor things like the screen covering the sunroof, which comes in handy on a sunny day, and commends Toyota for offering smartphone wireless charging."

Challenges: (Notice I didn't say cons)
"Not everything is great inside the bZ4X, according to Sandy, who doesn't like that Toyota has put too many buttons on the steering wheel and that the center display has a on/off button, which he believes it's superfluous.

So what about the driving experience? Well, Sandy Munro doesn't like the fact the bZ4X does not allow for one-pedal driving – he says neither he nor his wife managed to make that happen – and complains about front motor whine entering the cabin. He also notes there's too much wind noise."

His biggest suggestion for the bZ4X: "However, he already has a piece of advice for Toyota: reduce costs because the bZ4X is too close to the Tesla Model Y for comfort."

 

Here is an engineering breakdown of the interior.

Some things he liked, some he didn’t, and one he really couldn’t figure out (sun visors).

 

At age 73, you can trade in your Model 3 for a Gen 5 Prius Prime in a couple of months and get rid of your range anxiety and drive a more dependable car.

I don't think you want a BEV for road trips. PHEVs will still rule until better batteries such as lithium-metal batteries become commercial and more fast-charging stations are added. Give it another ten years to go there, and buy a PHEV at the moment if you are doing road trips. BEVs are currently for city driving only or only for those people practicing acrobatics in range anxiety.

 

As someone who has made numerous long distances trips with BEVs, I would contend you are incorrect.
Range anxiety is far more prevalent amount non-BEV owners than it is BEV owners.

 

It all depends on how long the road trip is going to be, and the car vehicle driven. Definitely the original nissan leaf was a city car, but that range was part of a japanese automaker group think that said batteries will stay expensive and bevs are only for city cars. Tesla thought the other way, and built long range BEVs and a charging network where many go long distances.

A 400 mile each way (800 mile road trip) or less is easily accomplished in any tesla and some other cars. This will be easier as time goes by. Make it a 1500 mile each way trip (3000 mile round trip) or more a rental car or other vehicle is prudent. My other vehicle for such trips is an airplane. Batteries are good enough and the charging network is being built out. For this type of trip or even most 250 mile trips I typically. There are now more models of BEVs available in the US than phevs and BEVs outsell phevs.

For most people a rav4 prime is going to provide most daily miles in EV. The bz4x appears to be a good vehicle if they work out some kinks, but if someone is going to be taking long trips in a BEV they will buy a different model from a different company. Give the rav4 prime which appears to be profitable the production volume, and stop the dealer gouging, and toyota fans looking for a compact crossover plug-in are going to pick that rav4 prime. Toyota's biggest problem with the bz4x appears to be cost to manufacture and not enough batteries. A new platform and time can fix both, as well as benchmarking the ioniq 5, tesla model Y, ford mustang mach 3, and bmw i4.

There is definitely a market for bevs that never need fast l3 charging, but electronics prices continue to fall. No reason not to have faster L3 charging in an over $40K vehicle when the competition has it.