Toyota loyalists who have pined for an EV finally get bZ4X

ENCINITAS, Calif. — When it reaches U.S. dealerships in the spring, the 2023 Toyota bZ4X won't have an eye-popping range or bleeding-edge technology that would make the electric midsize crossover stand out from the competitors expected to fill the segment.

But it will have something that none of its rivals will carry: a Toyota emblem. And executives at the Japanese automaker believe that logo will be enough to make it and a coming lineup of other Toyota EVs successful in the U.S.

"Don't underestimate the power of the Toyota badge because it comes with a lot of things that people like: peace of mind, quality, driving dynamics, reliable dealer network, long-term durability — all those things," said Cooper Ericksen, group vice president for product planning and strategy at Toyota Motor North America.

The bZ4X will feature a Toyota-estimated range of up to 250 miles and an advanced standard suite of safety and driver-assistance technologies. Sizewise, it will slot between the RAV4 compact crossover and the slightly larger Venza, with the wheelbase of a larger three-row Highlander.

While pricing has not yet been announced, the bZ4X is unlikely to be either the cheapest or the most expensive electric vehicle of that size or segment, but brand executives said at a media event here this week that they expect it will sell well because of Toyota's sterling reputation among its loyal customers. Toyota has the industry's highest rate of customer retention and was the only brand able to keep more than 60 percent of its customers from straying, according to the 2021 report from Naked Lime.

"The Toyota bZ4X looks like it is the right package — a crossover — and is coming at the right time," said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst at Cox Automotive. "The big question is price, which is the biggest obstacle for consumers."

Doug Eroh, president of Longo Toyota in El Monte, Calif., the nation's largest Toyota dealership by volume, said: "I believe the bZ4X is a game-changing product for us. Our guests have been asking for a battery-electric vehicle for some time. Tesla is a big player in this market, and many Tesla owners also own or have owned Toyotas, so we believe we will be able to win back a lot of this business to our brand and our dealership."

Eroh said 47 percent of the metropolitan Los Angeles dealership's sales are already hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fuel cell vehicles.

"Many of these guests desire to move up to a fully battery-electric vehicle from Toyota, and we will now have a great new option for them," he said.

Toyota has adopted a type of menu-based overall electrification strategy that builds upon its pioneering hybrid powertrain technology work and seeks to drive down overall carbon emissions by offering customers their choice of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery-electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles.

The broad strategy has drawn some criticism from those who see full battery-electric vehicles as the only alternative to reducing carbon emissions, but Toyota's counterargument is that the broad approach leads to greater adoption from buyers because it doesn't ask them to sacrifice as much as they might if BEVs were their only choice. Still, it sees a growing role for full EVs in its lineup, especially as charging infrastructure broadens and consumer resistance begins to soften.

"There are people that are not driving an EV today because they're waiting for a Toyota EV" to come to market, said Mike Tripp, vice president of vehicle marketing and communications at Toyota Motor North America. To uphold that customer loyalty, Tripp said the company has focused development of its bZ family of EVs on ensuring that the battery retains at least 90 percent of its energy capacity after 10 years of use, in part to eliminate any concerns customers might have about the vehicle losing its value and capability as it ages.

Ericksen said Toyota chose to return to the EV market — it previously offered limited sales of RAV4 EVs in 1997 and 2012 — with a midsize crossover in part because "it's the heart of the market. We're selling 450,000 RAV4s a year; there's a tremendous amount of showroom traffic on that size of product, so we think it's the right segment to go into, and we chose an SUV rather than a sedan because we're really emphasizing the customer use case and not trying to focus on a range number."