Ferdinand Porsche may have created hybrid cars with the Lohner-Porsche Mixed Hybrid in 1900, but Toyota made them popular with the Prius 97 years later. Under Carlos Ghosn’s helm, Nissan bet on a different solution in 2010: BEVs, with the Leaf. As reluctant as Toyota is regarding electric vehicles, it will deliver the bZ4X in the U.S. before Nissan can ship the Ariya, its most important car in years. Isn’t it ironic?
It gets even worse. Toyota presented the bZ4X Concept in April at the 2021 Auto Shanghai. The Nissan Ariya was officially unveiled on July 15, 2020. Yet, next spring, Toyota will start delivering the bZ4X to American customers, while Nissan’s electric crossover will only arrive at the U.S. shores by fall 2022.
At least Nissan already revealed how much it would charge for the Ariya. Toyota has only mentioned at the 2021 LA Auto Show that it will have about 250 miles (402 kilometers) of range. The 71.4-kWh battery pack would retain 90% of capacity after ten years or 150,000 miles (240,000 kilometers). Under the WLTP test cycle, the bZ4X should achieve a range of 311 mi (500 km).
The bZ4X will be either FWD (front-wheel drive) or AWD (all-wheel drive), but Toyota did not mention how much range the slightly larger battery pack in the latter, with 72.8 kWh, will deliver. It currently presents a TBD (to be defined) in the table Toyota provided.
Apart from the seven bZ (beyond zero) vehicles Toyota plans to release until 2025 (including the bZ4X), it said it would have eight other pure electric cars that are not under that moniker. We do not know which EVs it will reveal, but the company said these 15 EVs would be part of its world range – which means they can be restricted to some markets. The Japanese carmaker also said that it will have 70 electrified models globally by 2025. That includes hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and FCEVs (fuel cell electric vehicles).
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