2023 Toyota bZ4X EV (Reviews start on page 6)

it wouldn't be the first time Toyota rolled out a production vehicle (ostensibly) for R&D.
This shopping cart sized 50 mile range IQ EV comes to mind.

That is, it was either for R&D or Toyota simply didn't know their audience.
There's a couple of other Toyota vehicles that come to mind in this same category. Dare we mention their hydrogen Mirai?
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Hey now, they are actually selling(with massive subsidies) the Mirai. Say, maybe that is what has Toyota spooked on plug ins, the idea that the public might actually buy a car without an ICE without major government handouts.

Toyota might have been looking forward to the Chinese market with the iQ EV. The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuling_Hongguang_Mini_EV is the top selling model. Being literally a tenth of the iQ EV's expected price does help.

Hey look, some company is planning to bring the iQ EV back in China. Toyota iQ city car reborn as China-only Singulato iC3 EV | Autocar

 

Fun fact: LFP cells from CATL have a maximum continuous charge rate of 1C

Total capacity is 72.8kWh
Pack voltage is 355.2V
Pack contains 96 A cells
Capacity of each cell is 205Ah
Voltage of each cell is 3.7V

 

The 3.7V would mean this is CATL's NCM cells.

 

That was my initial impression as well. Looking deeper at specs, I found 3.2V for LFP was nominal and operating was 3.7V

 

Has Toyota stated they are using CATL's LFP?

 

There's no benefit from opening that can of worms.

 

I'm taking that as a no, since Toyota's materials on the bZ4X only say Li-ion. Further more, there is less than 70 pounds difference between the FWD and AWD XL model. A CATL LFP pack of near the same capacity as a Panasonic NCM type pack would be 300 pounds heavier.