Toyota bZ4X might be delayed to 2023

The launch of Toyota’s first battery-electric car in Australia, the Toyota bZ4X, could still be more than 12 months away.

But when it does eventually arrive Toyota is expected to offer the ability to place an order online as well as via a Toyota dealer.

Toyota had originally hoped to land the bZ4X, which was revealed as a thinly disguised concept at the Shanghai auto show last April, in Australia within months of its mid-2022 global launch.

But we may not see it in Australia until the early months of 2023.

Happily, Toyota Australia marketing and sales chief Sean Hanley says any supply issues won’t be as serious as those encountered by LandCruiser and RAV4 owners.

“It will only be months, not years,” he said. “It will just be production timing if there is any challenges there.

“But this stage we are still hopeful in the next 12 months we will be able to announce some launch activity on that car.”

While important symbolically as Toyota’s first venture into EVs in Australia, the bZ4X will not be a big seller.

So a later than expected arrival in early 2023 won’t do any harm to the brand’s ambitions to increase sales from its market-topping 2021 efforts.

But expensive pricing will be the key inhibitor to mass take-up of bZ4X, Hanley explained.

“Will it be cheap? Well, the short answer is no, because battery-electric vehicles aren’t cheap. Will we try to make it as affordable as possible, absolutely we will,” he said.

“EVs are not cheap and it won’t be as cheap as some of the cars we have today, but at the same time we’ll try to bring it to market so it’s achievable, so people can get behind the wheel of it.

“We want to make it achievable, we really want to sell this car.”

Hanley wouldn’t give any indication of what pricing might look like, in what sort numbers Toyota Australia would be able to obtain the bZ4X and what sort of model range and drivetrains might be available here.

Globally, the new five-seat mid-size SUV will be available in single-motor front-wheel drive and dual-motor all-wheel drive configurations.

Measuring up slightly longer than the RAV4, it will have a 71.4kWh battery pack and a claimed range up to 500km in 2WD form.

Hanley did indicate Toyota expected to do better sales numbers with the bZ4X than Hyundai is doing with the IONIQ 5, which is dribbling into the country in very low numbers despite huge interest.

“Let’s just say our planning volumes are more ambitious than that,” he said.

The Hyundai IONIQ 5 is currently priced at $71,900 for the 2WD and $75,900 for the AWD, but a cheaper version with a smaller battery is expected to launch in the second half of 2022.

Hanley said Toyota Australia was deep in the planning process for bZ4X and made clear it would likely be offered to customers in ways other than through the traditional dealer channel.

“Online will be part of it, but it won’t be exclusive to online,” he said. “It may be or it may not be. We will look at different ways of buying it, different packages, all sorts of things.”

Beyond the bZ4X Hanley wouldn’t commit to any other specific EVs coming to Australia, despite a recent mass unveiling that included a range of bZ – Beyond Zero – cars and SUVs, plus a Toyota-badged pick-up and sports car as well as passenger cars and SUVs.

“One hundred per cent we are interested in electrified cars, but we will be interested in those cars that we can source that are practical, affordable and all the things that customers want and will reduce our CO2 footprint,” he said.