Another EV contender is about to join the fray.
Meet Toyota’s “Beyond Zero” model, in the sheet metal. Well, sort of, as the automaker just showed a brief teaser of its forthcoming crossover on social media channels Monday. This is Toyota’s first major push into the modern EV sphere, after it showed off six concept vehicles back in 2019. Right now we can only see a bit of the front end, but the next rival to the Tesla Model Y, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID.4 and Nissan Ariya will finally show all next Monday, April 19.
So what do we know about the BZ, beyond its name? It should just be the first of many, at least if Toyota commits to putting most of the concepts shown below into production. While it cribs a few styling tropes from other models — I see a bit of Corolla in the front end, for example — it does not look like any other model in the current lineup. Designers largely stuck with the grille-less front end, but added some more practical quad-lens LED headlights. The classic blue badge signifying its electrified nature remains, though this one should be on a bespoke battery-electric platform.
There’s no official information yet in terms of performance specs, but the powertrain living underneath this BZ’s sheet metal is co-developed by Toyota and Subaru. Along with single-motor versions, Toyota should launch all-wheel drive versions, possibly with an “X” attacked to the model name. Toyota’s BZ models will get a number to set them apart from their stablemates, similar to what Kia and Volkswagen are doing with their bespoke EV lineups.
More to come
Naturally, almost all discussion regarding Toyota’s EV is academic at this point. Fortunately we’ll know more next week, and from there we can better get our finger on the pulse of how Toyota plans to upset the Tesla status quo, as well as other rivals coming onto the scene.
The first Toyota BZ model will debut for Europe first, but we should see a U.S. model revealed in the months thereafter. That’s not the only EV the automaker planned, though, as they’re selling this quirky little C+pod in Japan:
