Wen | Aohu Hu

For today’s young people, Toyota may be much harder to understand than Tesla.

They probably can’t understand how, on one hand, Toyota is dull, uninteresting, and ordinary, while on the other hand, Tesla is futuristic and world-changing. How can Toyota, the old-fashioned and unprogressive Japanese automaker, continue to survive for so many years?

When bZ4X, Toyota’s first true electric car, appeared, we, who are familiar with all kinds of new cars, couldn’t help but sneer, “Is this it?” The only surprise is that the first-sale price of the bZ4X of First Automobile Works Toyota is just under 200,000 yuan, which is a bit more realistic than the pre-sale price of 220,000 yuan.

When I was young, I didn’t understand Toyota, or any other make of car. At that time, I was full of fantasies about adult life, and I believed that BBA was just the starting line of life, and it had to be 34C or larger to make it count. Toyota and other Japanese makes were only suitable for taxis and buses. What? Domestic brands? Can those be considered cars?

I changed my QQ signature to “Every man should have a 911 in his life,” and I couldn’t agree more. How can someone work hard all their life and still not be able to afford a Porsche? He must not be trying hard enough. I’ll just live at the company and roll over those lazy, smelly middle-aged people who don’t leave.

And then there’s nothing left to say. I’m here to produce some insignificant content, and this month, pork ribs at Hema have gone up by 5.3 yuan.

Last year when Toyota unveiled its bZ4X and e-TNGA platforms, people were all focused on the sci-fi steer-by-wire steering wheel. However, as mentioned in the final paragraph of “This time, Toyota won Tesla,” Toyota’s bold move in steering technology may have overshadowed the conservative nature of the platform itself.

As Toyota’s first true pure electric platform vehicle, the bZ4X is not as luxurious or powerful as the common cars seen in China: it still uses mostly front-wheel drive, and the four-wheel drive version has only 10 kW more power than the front-wheel drive version. Even with the emblem covered, you can tell it’s a Japanese car by looking inside.

I can imagine many people staring in disbelief, unable to understand: the car is not meant for you to sleep in, it doesn’t come equipped with a big TV for gaming, it doesn’t flash its headlights at you or talk to you about AI emotions – it’s simply a car, like a madman.

Even beyond these features, the car itself is pretty run-of-the-mill. The regular front-wheel-drive version is average, while the four-wheel-drive version has acceptable performance. The suspension is not high-end, the 60±kWh battery has a range of 600±km, and the fast charging has a maximum of 100 kW, but it’s nothing to write home about.

Other than the One Motion Grip steering wheel, which is still being introduced in China and may cause a little OMG reaction, probably the only high-tech feature is the solar charging dome that comes as an option with the top model, which is a “high” in terms of physical space.

But let’s hold back and not turn too much, otherwise we may not be able to return.What would you imagine a Toyota electric vehicle to look like if we go back to before the unveiling of this new car? A car that can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 4 seconds and beat all others on the racetrack with its front and rear double-wishbone suspension? A car with Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities for all road conditions? A car with a frameless, suspended large screen and eight rare wood decorations made of Nappa leather throughout the vehicle?

Come on, don’t just drink, have some peanuts.

Instead of praising Toyota, let’s take the bZ4X for example. Does it really not meet everyone’s expectations for a Toyota electric vehicle? For those who are used to seeing cars that are extraordinary, but find the bZ4X to be unimpressive, isn’t Toyota’s first dedicated electric vehicle supposed to be a small car without too much flashiness?

Or is it that someone is really looking forward to a Gaohe HiPhi X with the Toyota logo?

From Corolla to RAV4, from Camry to Highlander, even to the Lexus ES, Toyota has always sold these unremarkable car models and become the world’s number one automaker, locking its position for many years. If you see Toyota and expect something else, it’s not Toyota’s fault, it’s yours.

Toyota has always been creating miracles with ordinary cars. If you think about it, there seem to be all types and styles of electric cars on the market today, with the market saturated with options, but where is the electric car like the bZ4X that is so plain and stable, without any extra length or width? … It exists, but there are no cars with the Toyota logo or those of similar big-name automakers.

This is already the reason for the existence of the bZ4X, and its biggest value.It so happens that many of my university social circle choose to stay in a small coastal city instead of being lured to the bustling cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou where everything is about money and luxury cars. I fully understand that for any average consumer who doesn’t care about the development trend of the automotive industry and doesn’t want to pay any premium other than for brand and reputation, but just wants to buy a car to live a simple life of the common people, they may choose a Teana, an Axela, a Corolla, or an Accord.

What is new energy vehicle? What are the new four modernizations? What will happen after many years? Does it have anything to do with me, an office worker who works on ThinkPad and Excel from 9am to 9pm every day? No, that’s your bread and butter, automotive media, so don’t try to kidnap us normal people.

Any ordinary consumer who has no interest in any trend in the auto industry, if for whatever reason, needs to buy a pure electric vehicle and can find a corresponding product under the most mainstream and safe brand in the market, and this model does not have any obvious drawbacks, this is exactly what Toyota should be doing.

The bZ4X seems to play this role quite well on paper. It doesn’t go from 0 to 60mph in three seconds, but 150 kW is enough to satisfy and even surprise most owners of similarly priced fuel cars, with a conventional but conservative front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, which actually provides more peace of mind on wet and slippery roads.

It doesn’t have a high-performance chassis configuration, but its suspension structure is the same as GA-K models such as Camry and RAV4, and it does not compromise on being an electric vehicle, meeting the “car virtue” criteria of at least not compromising performance and quality between gas and electric vehicles. Of course, there is nothing to praise, but this doesn’t undermine our expectations.

As a Toyota, it doesn’t come with seven or eight lidars, but it pleasantly surprises buyers by having the complete range of functions of TSS Toyota Safety Sense, from dynamic cruise control to lane departure warning, as standard across the board. This is commonplace for newly established automakers and autonomous vehicle brands but is a rare change for traditional automakers.

It doesn’t come with a 100-degree large battery and 800V fast charging, but the 50/67-degree battery pack ensures that the overall cost of the vehicle doesn’t exceed the limit, and the maximum range of 615km is impressive. 100kW DC fast charging may not be advanced enough, but it is still a decent power that public charging stations can provide today.

Of course, the market is not calling for the industry to stop innovating, stop being bold, and stop being pioneering, and instead make cars like the “ordinary” bZ4X for everyone, let alone that the bZ4X is not really ordinary. It is just that, while exploring and trying new things for the future, there is also a need for models like the bZ4X genuinely designed for today’s consumers, and Toyota is just the right company to make it happen.

Along with the official launch of bZ4X, Toyota has also released bZ3, the first sedan of the series. Unlike bZ4X, which uses batteries from CATL, bZ3 is the first to be equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries from BYD, apparently taking the “ordinary” to the extreme, with “ordinary” in the sense of affordability.

At the present time, bZ4X is not affordable enough, with the 400km range version priced at RMB 199,800, obviously set to lower the entry threshold, while it takes RMB 229,800 to get the 615km version, which provides a relatively complete user experience. Toyota is accustomed to using the formula of “occasionally with merit, but never with fault” to create sales miracles with the “ordinary” recipe, and bZ4X is only missing a terminal discount to achieve it.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.