TOYOTA bZ4X

Important new platform underpins important new RAV4-sized battery-electric SUV

- MATT PRIOR

TESTED 8.6.22, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK ON SALE JULY

TESTER'S NOTE The battery is warranted for 10 years or 620,000 miles to retain 70% of its capacity, but Toyota expects this to be 90% over the same period. MP

Yes, I know it's named after a mid-1980s microcomputer but bear with: the Toyota bZ4X is bit more modern. 'BZ' means 'beyond zero', so it's a battery-electric car; '4' refers roughly to the size - it's similar to the RAV4; and 'X' means it's an SUV/crossover, because what self-respecting new EV isn't?

Toyota's latest sits on a bespoke BEV platform called eTNGA, related to the TNGA one but reserved for battery-electric vehicles. You'll know the outline: big battery beneath the floor and motors at either end, with MacPherson struts at the front and trailing arm suspension at the rear.

It will be the basis for Toyota EVS of between 4.3 metres and five and a bit metres long. There will be another platform for smaller BEVs, which Toyota has perhaps belatedly thrown its considerable weight behind, some 25 years after it first started electrifying family saloons.