Toyota BZ4X EV | Ai Review on Toyota's Worst Car

The brand new Toyota BZ-4X co-developed with Subaru. This is designed from the ground up to be an electric platform to build mainstream SUVs, CUVs, and maybe some cars. It is also shared with certain Lexus models. They wanted to compete with other brands that used the same random character generators to make model names like the ID.4, the EV6, the Ioniq 5, the Tesla Model 3, and the Mustang Mach-E. So what is it? It's a copy and paste job on the outside and inside. They didn't want to go too far outside the box. It looks almost like a RAV4 with the exception of the mismatching painted panels. It has a stumpy front end, of course, because it's electric. You don't need this huge hood, although there is no storage underneath there. It's just an electric drivetrain. The side and the back could easily be confused for other Toyotas that are non-electric until you open the hatch. It's huge, but then you realize they had to make some sacrifices to make this more sleek. So they shaved off the rear end a bit and sacrificed some of that space with the sloping rear roof. You can fit a majority of the things back there, and the legroom in the back is pretty good. Of course, it's got usable Toyota things all over it. It really feels like a regular Toyota car that they haven't spent that much time on. And I'll be completely honest, I feel like a majority of these first-generation $40,000 CUV SUV electric vehicles are just the K-Car generation of EVs. It's for early adopters, and I'm going to get into that more later. The pros and the cons of the interior is it feels quite usable, it is very comfortable and quiet, and most of the ergonomics are okay. That's where the good ends, because I feel like mostly, material choice and everything, it feels like a cardboard box. It really does. The plastics are cheap, the fabric choice is odd. Things like the enormous steering wheel gauge pod doesn't make any sense. You can't seem to get the rounded steering wheel in a position where you're not blocking the gauge cluster, or a majority of it, so you have to move the steering wheel around that to see it. The center stack is all piano black. It looks like trash. They didn't spend that much time in terms of design in here. I feel like they really phoned home. The all-electric Toyota BZ4 xSUV not only looks to further Toyota's commitment to a carbon-neutral future, but it does so in style. Ready to make a fresh mark on the battery-electric vehicle segment, BZ4x blends bold, modern styling with tech-laden features in an extremely capable platform. BZ4x is the first Toyota vehicle to be launched under the Global BZ series, with more BZ vehicles on the horizon intending to elevate the BV segment for years to come. BZ, which stands for Beyond Zero, was developed with human-centricity at the heart, meaning it hopes to provide more than a mobility solution, but also an innovative space for customers. The cabin allows for ample legroom for both front and rear seats, as well as copious side-to-side space in the rear, further contributing to a feeling of home-like comfort. Piano black parts are featured throughout the vehicle, enhancing the quality feel, while a satin material is found on the higher-limited grade to exude a feeling of luxury. A soft-touch material is also added to the dashboard for a premium touch. The interior styling of BZ4x exudes a certain familiarity with premium finishes designed to make everything easily accessible, from the USB ports to the all-new multimedia system. The BZ4x comes standard with a 12.3-inch widescreen Toyota Audio Multimedia System. BZ4x drivers will be at the ready thanks to a wide range of enhanced connectivity and convenience features, including being over-the-air, OTA, updatable. POI search is provided by Google Points of Interest data. Destination Assist also gives access to 24-7 live agent assistance to locate the next destination. Based on the design theme, high-tech and emotional, the all-new, all-electric SUV offers styling that is as bold and modern as the vehicle itself. All-electric, zero emissions. Introducing the revolutionary BZ4x, a cutting-edge electric vehicle powered by Toyota's innovative eTNGA platform. This state-of-the-art BEV architecture offers unparalleled flexibility, allowing for seamless integration of various battery packs sourced from leading industry suppliers. Tailor the BZ4x to your unique driving needs with two sophisticated trim levels, the sleek XLE and the luxurious Limited. Choose between the dynamic front-wheel drive and the robust all-wheel drive configurations to achieve optimal performance. Boasting an impressive 71.4-kilowatt-hour battery capacity and front-wheel drive single motor, or a remarkable 72.8-kilowatt-hour dual-motor all-wheel drive, the BZ4x delivers uncompromising power, experience exhilarating acceleration with 201 horsepower and 196 pound-feet of torque in front-wheel drive, or harness the full potential of all-wheel drive's 214 horsepower, 107 horsepower per motor, and 124 pound-feet of torque per motor. Redefine convenience with ultra-fast charging capabilities. The FWD battery pack supports up to 150-kilowatt DC fast charging, while the all-wheel drive model is optimized for 100-kilowatt charging. The BZ4x's advanced suspension system, featuring strut front and multi-link rear, provides an unparalleled driving experience. Meanwhile, the fully-covered floor pan enhances aerodynamics and minimizes road noise for a smoother, quieter ride. Discover the future of mobility with the BZ4x, where groundbreaking technology and exceptional performance converge to redefine electric driving. Apparently, you're not supposed to use the HVAC in here, Jack. How is it that you just, what, what did we lose? 60 miles. 60 miles of rain just turning on the heat? Well, don't worry about that. We don't need the heat. All right, before you go on your rant, when you get re-taken over by Akio Toyoda and his goons, there are a couple good things about this vehicle. Oh yeah? When you compare this to a RAV4, because that's sort of what, in my mind, this is supposed to replace, you don't have a rattly-ass 4-cylinder. And that's about it. That's the one good thing about this car. And it's not entirely slow. It's like zero to 60 in high sixes, low seven, around seven seconds, and it feels adequate in that regards. So, let's say we're in 20, 30, Jack, and every car is electric, what you just said is not going to matter because every single car is going to be the same. Yes. So what does this do better than a RAV4 or its, like, Sienna, or not Sienna, what's the other one? The Venza, that's right, the Venza. What is it doing better than those vehicles? Absolutely nothing, other than it not having a rattly 4-cylinder. If you are looking at this as an alternative to a RAV4 hybrid or a Venza or a CR-V hybrid, there's no reason you should buy this thing. This is a half-baked Toyota product, and the thing that kills it is the range, some of the weird interior quirks that you've talked about already, and the fact that it really does not feel like a product that was totally thought through and wasn't well thought out. This just feels like a product they didn't want to build, and you can hear it from Akio Toyota himself. He complains that for the amount of resources it takes to build something like this, he could build eight times as many hybrid vehicles, and he thinks at this point, the technology for hybrid vehicles is better and more well-established and will probably help the environment more than building fewer EV vehicles. I think that fact that he didn't want this thing to begin with shows in the final product. What do you think? I don't even want to speculate. To be fair, this is a hard one because you want Toyota and brands like this to do well, they're spending a ton of money on these things, but if you're not going to do it, and you don't want to do it... Then don't do it to begin with. Then don't do it to begin with, and that's kind of like this video. Why are we doing this video? I think when we got in this car, the pre-production version of it... We got in this thing a year ago when we did Toyota Connected's video. We sat in it, and they're like, oh, it's not out yet, so don't talk about it. I'm like, I don't even want to talk about it. I was hoping that pre-production model wasn't going to be the real thing, and it was the real thing. As much as people want to hate on Hyundai and Kia and some of these other brands, if you put this next to an Ioniq, I'd be embarrassed if I was in the team, and I know their hands were tied. Clearly, they didn't have the development money, they didn't have the passion or the desire. It was just like, let's get it out there. It might just be, I hate to overuse the term, it might have just been a compliance product to say they had an EV, at least to start something to say that they did it, to appease the board of directors or the shareholders or whatever they're trying to make happy. It's somewhat quiet. It does ride good. It does ride softly, if you're going to talk about that, other than all the ---- we're talking about. The ride's good. It's pretty quiet. It's soft. The braking feels pretty natural. The steering is... All the inputs in this car are totally fine. They're not remarkable. They're not bad. It doesn't ride great, but it doesn't ride bad. It is quiet. It is much quieter than a RAV4 or even a Venza. I will give it that, and that's the joy of an electric architecture, is that that battery pack acts as a giant sound absorber, NVH absorber, because it's so rigid, and it does a good job in that regards. But I think, in a segment that this competes against, the ID4, which was the worst EV product I'd ever driven, this, because not necessarily it's a worse vehicle, it's so underwhelming from a brand that should be able to do a better job, and I think that's my problem with it. It's not that it's... Like, if you drove this thing and you got it for no dollars, if it was essentially free and you rolled around in this thing, I don't think you would feel like you wasted your money in a vacuum, but compared to the things that it's competing against, it's just so underwhelming. Yeah, it is. There's absolutely no reason to buy this, I'll be completely honest. There's absolutely no... Other than it's... You know, if it was essentially, like, free. Right. I mean, this... I can't think of one reason why you'd buy this over a RAV4 hybrid at this current stage based on what they did with this or basically any of the other mainstream EVs that compete with this. It's just probably the worst thing. Oh, Mark, I'm getting chilly. I'm gonna put back on the HVAC. Yeah, I need to lose another 100 miles per hour. Other than the CHR, the CHR was the worst, not in terms of looks and all that, but that was the worst car overall that they had made, and this is definitely a close second. All right, Mark, with that, let's head into the final thoughts. All right. Final thoughts on the BZ4X. And yes, I'm sure many companies would just like to jam the marketing down your throat. I get it. I mean, in some cases, it's like current regulation, current government, current politics, current society, it's forcing a lot of this technology that doesn't really need to be here yet. And this BZ4X, like many of the electric cars, feel the same way. They did it because they had to, not because they want to. And that's when you see products become very, very soulless and watered down. This is built for the absolute lowest common denominator. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, really. I mean, there's some weird stuff on the interior, like no glove box and just things like that, material choice, but that's not even a deal breaker. It rides quiet, it's soft, does not handle great, certainly not super fast. It just, you walk away from it like watching an average movie. You're going to forget about it as soon as you're done with it and never really think about it again. And that's not a good place to be when you're spending $40,000. We're not talking about a phone or like a bad dinner that you can just forget. We're talking about a huge investment. And that's my big problem with these types of vehicles. I don't know that we're there yet where the innovation is super high and the commitment to dump tons of money into making unique products is super high until you get into like a $100,000 price range, which most people can't afford. So I'm left wondering why this exists. I know why it exists from a regulatory perspective that they had to do it, but I don't know why it exists for a consumer and why you should spend your money on it. And that's hard because most Toyota products, it's a go-to, you know, we tell everybody buy a RAV4 and that's just another thing I'm going to tell you, buy a RAV4 if you can get one. It's a better vehicle overall. It's more purposeful in its function. There's other EVs like the Ioniq 5, if you can get one, EV6, pretty good, same thing. You know, Tesla Model 3, obviously, you know, there's problems with it, but it works in terms of being an EV. So you know, think about it, drive it if you're really interested in it and, you know, give us some feedback. Tell me what you think. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next video. Trust us, Savage Geese is best in class. Like, subscribe, smash the bell. You know you deserve it. My boyfriend called me a pig.