The big test: electric family cars

The five-seat crossover EV is going mainstream, with new contenders arriving every month. Can Japan wrestle honours back from the Koreans?

- TOM FORD

Even three years ago, the realistic choices for a pure electric family car were something expensively Tesla-shaped or the Nissan Leaf. Possibly a Renault Zoe if your kids were particularly undernourished. These days, committing you can't move for manufacturers earnestly to be entirely electrified in the next 10 years, pretty much all of them some variety of the much-abused 'SUV' catch all. And yet a couple of big hitters have been notably quiet.

Nissan had always been at the forefront of electrified mass production with the Leaf, but while that car quietly soldiered on, there was a distinct lack of electric freshness on the Nissan menu. October 2019 first saw the Ariya concept, but it wasn't until 2022 that we actually got our hands on a car. Similarly, Toyota - pioneer of semi-electrification that it was with the Prius - hedged its bets so severely that it feels late to the party; everyone's already fully engaged and the grand entrance of the EV-specific e-TNGA platform is a bit lost in the noise. Conservatism often looks exactly like apprehension. Or industrial-grade dithering. But Toyota's here now with the BZ4X - co-developed with the Subaru Solterra - and the company needs it to be noticed and taken seriously, a tough ask in a market awash with the new and shiny.