TOYOTA HAS THE RIGHT FORMULA FOR FIRST EV

IT ALL ADDS UP WELL FOR IMPRESSIVE AND STYLISH BZ4X

Maths was one of my least favourite subjects at school, therefore giving a car a name that looks like some kind of formula is not going to go down well in these quarters.

Bit with a little help I have managed to decipher the name of Toyota’s first ever all-electric car. It transpires that bZ4X translates to Beyond Zero for the first two letters; 4 refers to it being the same size as a RAV4 and the X marks it out as an SUV.

Considering Toyota got onto the electrification train almost 20 years ago with its Prius hybrid, it’s surprising the company has taken so long to produce its first EV. It might simply be good judgment because now the EV market is really buzzing.

So much so that the bZ4X joins the game playing against a field full of rivals.

There are those stars from South Korea, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6; Elon Musk’s Tesla Model Y and the Skoda Enyaq iV among many others.

First impressions of the bZ4X from the outside is of a smartlooking stylish motor. We’re testing the mid-spec Motion trim in two-wheel drive form. It has a single 201bhp electric motor that drives the front wheels but you can also spec Toyota’s newcomer with a couple of motors and four-wheel drive with a total power output of 215bhp.