Toyota Australia has launched its first electric vehicle in Australia – the bZ4X midsize SUV, which is priced from $66,000 plus on-road costs.
The new Toyota BEV model is showing up at the same playground where the Tesla Model Y has been the king of the castle for a long time now, but the Japanese brand reckons that unlike Tesla and a number of other EV alternatives, the bZ4X will offer a different kind of appeal because of the brand’s heritage in our market.
If you believe Toyota Australia vice president of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley, customers are going to be drawn to the bZ4X electric SUV because it is a Toyota that happens to be electric.
“Because it’s new technology, I believe that people kind of want to stick with brands they trust. Brands they know have a track record, and, not that I’m downgrading other brands, Toyota has been around a long, long time,” said Mr Hanley.
“I think that’ll be helpful in our engagement with people on this vehicle. I do believe that trust is an important factor, and as I mentioned, not only is this a battery electric vehicle, it’s a Toyota. And I think that has a lot of meaning,” he said.
Mr Hanley said that the company stands by its original prediction of about 1,500 sales of the bZ4X in 2024, and that it won’t only be buyers who are aiming to offset their carbon emissions, but a mix of government, fleet, company and private customers that are ready to “make the transition” to EV.
Mr Hanley said he sees the main buyers of bZ4X being government fleets in particular.
“It’s a big market, and a big opportunity. Whilst we will be pitching the bZ4X across all buyer types, we certainly see government as a big opportunity.
Toyota Australia vice president of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley
“Local, state, federal, but also companies are reaching out to us saying ‘we are interested to understand how we can reduce our carbon footprint through electric vehicles’.
“Our fleet mix is generally 48 percent of our normal sales, to be honest, so I don’t think that it will be terribly different. It might be heavier than 48 percent up front, but eventually it’ll sort of fall into that 48-52 percent private versus fleet.
“Private buyers, I think, will be more dominant in the later part, but in the early part, it’ll be mostly fleet,” Mr Hanley said.
The bZ4X is offered in a base grade front-wheel drive model at $66,000 plus on-road costs, which is expected to attract the ‘vast majority’ of orders, while the more richly specified all-wheel drive version comes in at $74,900 plus on-roads.
Both bZ4X models have a 71.4kWh battery pack, but driving range and efficiency differs between the two. The FWD model has a WLTP rated range of 436km and efficiency of 16.9kWh per 100km, while the heavier and higher-riding AWD version has 411km of EV range and 18.1kWh per 100km efficiency figures (WLTP).
