TEASED: New Toyota bZ Model Looks Like The bZ5X

Oct. 26, 2022 2:03 PM ET by Gerhard Horn Teaser / 2 Comments

Will it be another China-only model, or will it come to the States?

Toyota has been widely criticized for not joining the EV party earlier, though it appears to have valid reasons for not jumping on the EV bandwagon. That said, two of its bZ electric models have been unveiled, and the third one has just been teased for the first time.

So far, only the bZ4X has made it to the USA, where it got off to a rough start. The bZ3 made its debut earlier this week, but it won't be coming to the USA.

A darkened teaser image is all we have to work with at the moment. It appears to be the same size as the bZ3, but the hatchback rear is the most noticeable difference.

Further clues might come from Toyota's massive EV reveal at the end of 2021. It gave us a glimpse of 16 upcoming EVs, though we now know that not all of them will make the cut. (Yes, we know there are 17 cars in the image, but we already knew about the bZ4X.)

The only one of those 16 cars that remotely resembles the outline in the teaser image is the unnamed Beyond Zero (that's what bZ stands for) three-row SUV. Back then, Toyota also mentioned a midsize sedan, and that turned out to be the previously mentioned bZ3.

This might be the first teaser image of that unnamed SUV, which we decided to call the bZ5X for now. It does appear to sit higher off the ground than an average sedan.

We also know that the electric FJ Cruiser and Crown have been put on the back burner. Toyota is currently working on a new EV strategy, which will likely see the vast majority of the 16 models you see here being culled.

Thanks to a recent interview with Toyota North America, we also know that it is not interested in building an EV truck until it can do all the things an ICE truck can. That's already three of the 16 gone.

Because it looks similar in size to the bZ3, the unnamed EV might share the same platform. That means 373 miles of range on a single charge, or a little bit less due to the aerodynamics.

Will it come to the USA? Well, a lot has changed since then. Toyota's CEO, Akio Toyoda, is usually a reserved, polite man, but he recently criticized the current administration's push for EV adoption. Toyota is also struggling to sell the bZ4X in the USA, which may have contributed to Toyota rethinking its EV strategy.

The Japanese brand was unwilling to share much, but it boils down to making EVs more affordable in the long run. This might even include an all-new EV platform, which could take up to five years to develop.

Will this unnamed model in the teaser make it to America? It seems more suited to our needs and tastes, and Toyota is investing $5.6 billion in the United States and Japan to increase the production of EV batteries.

What use is a battery factory if you only have one EV on sale?

TEASED: New Toyota bZ Model Looks Like The bZ5X

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TEASED: New Toyota bZ Model Looks Like The bZ5X

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