Toyota will come with a fully electric battery car with a range of 450 km at the end of this year
Toyota has announced the arrival of the bZ4X. It will be the first fully electric car of the Japanese brand with only batteries as a basis. According to the manufacturer, the SUV will make its European debut at the end of this year. The car would have a range of 450 km.
Toyota’s first battery-electric car will have a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 71.4 kWh. According to the manufacturer, this makes a range of 450 km possible based on the European WLTP standard. The company expects battery performance to decline ‘marginally’, in the form of a 10 percent decline over ten years, or after 240,000 miles driven. However, these numbers are still provisional, as official approval is yet to come.
The bZ4X will have a heat pump and the battery is liquid-cooled, the manufacturer reports. What should also contribute to the cooling of the battery is the design of the lower grille, which has a valve to direct cooling air to the battery. This valve should also reduce air resistance. The battery can be charged quickly with a maximum of 150 kW at direct current. With such a capacity, the battery could be recharged by 80 percent within half an hour. With alternating current, charging is possible with a maximum of 6.6 kW.
Interested parties can choose from two drive variants, in the form of 150kW and 265Nm torque, or 160kW and 336Nm torque. This more powerful version will be four-wheel drive, while the less powerful version will only drive the front wheels. In the four-wheel drive version, there are two electric motors of 80 kW each, one mounted on the front axle and the other on the rear axle. In both cases, single pedal drive will be possible.
Furthermore, some versions of the bZ4X contain a steer-by-wire system, where there are no mechanical connections between the wheels and the steering wheel; this defect is replaced by an electronic control. According to Toyota, this leads to more legroom and a better seating position and entry and exit. These versions will also have a different shaped steering wheel, the so-called One Motion Grip control. This means that repacking will no longer be necessary, because an extreme rotation of the wheels would already be achieved with a turn of 150 degrees.
The bZ4X is the production model of the concept shown at the Shanghai Motor Show earlier this year. The car is built on the Toyota and Subaru e-TNGA platform and is slightly larger than the RAV4 SUV in terms of dimensions. According to Toyota, the bZ4X will make its European debut on December 2, although the model would not be available in all regions until the middle of next year. The manufacturer has not yet given prices.