토요타 bZ4X

Wide-ranging overhaul of Toyota’s first electric car puts it on a competitive footing for the first time

Toyota probably anticipated a challenging few years for its first all-electric production model, the Toyota BZ4X. It was an uncompetitive first bespoke EV, at a time when the market for family-friendly electric crossovers was booming. The steepness of the learning curve that this car has had to surmount, on its way to becoming the permanent and worthy fixture in the firm’s showroom range that it would now appear to be, is quite something to contemplate.Almost as soon as it appeared in 2022, it had a critical safety recall for faulty wheel hubs. Then there were issues with the overly conservative ‘battery buffering’ software, which caused the car to underestimate its available range, and with the cabin heater, which caused it to actually compromise its available range – at least until a new ‘radiant’ heater could be added. And then came the grumblings of owners about the car’s per