The Toyota BZ3c is presently solely deliberate for China, and might be made in FAW-Toyota’s Tianjin manufacturing facility.
The BZ3c’s motor and battery each come from BYD.
It’s anticipated to enter manufacturing earlier than the top of 2024.
Slightly birdie instructed me that automakers each in and out of China detest the Ministry of Trade and Info Expertise. In case you do not know, the MIIT is without doubt one of the final steps for certification earlier than any automobile is accepted on the market in China. Sadly for the automakers, all of the specs and unflattering passport-like pictures they must submit for this are public data in China, making the entire operation mainly Leak Central. It seems just like the Toyota BZ3c is the newest sufferer of the MIIT.
Now, I’m fortunate to have seen the BZ3c in individual, albeit in its thinly-veiled preproduction idea guise at this 12 months’s Beijing Auto Present. I believed the BZ3c typically appeared well-proportioned and trendy as if it had been the logical development of a full-EV model of the swanky new Prius.
After I noticed the BZ3c in individual, the 2 vehicles felt about the identical dimension. Nonetheless, dimensionally the BZ3c’s 188.1-inch size is greater than a little bit longer than the 181.1 inches of the present Prius.
Picture by: InsideEVs
Picture by: MIIT
Picture by: MIIT
These patent-style pictures aren’t all that flattering, although. It doesn’t seem that something on the design has modified for the reason that Beijing Auto Present, however the white paint, ugly wheel covers and lack of privateness glass have made the automotive look considerably ungainly. The cruel, matter-of-fact lighting within the room and the focal size of the digital camera ain’t serving to, both.
The MIIT says the BZ3c may have an LFP battery from BYD, though it didn’t say how massive the battery might be. The motor itself can also be from BYD. It’s a 268-horsepower unit powering the entrance wheels. This mannequin will made on the FAW-Toyota plant in Tianjin, alongside one other Toyota BZ automotive we don’t get right here: the BZ3 sedan.
Though this automotive is the results of a tie-up with FAW, BYD and Toyota, it feels prefer it’s much more associated to different Toyotas within the steady. On the identical present, Toyota confirmed off the near-production model of the Toyota BZ3x.
At first, that SUV fooled me, I merely assumed it was a subcompact or Toyota Corolla Cross-sized EV crossover to fit beneath the RAV4-sized BZ4x. In actuality, it didn’t share a lot with the BZ4X or BZ3 sedan in any respect. It was a restyled (or rebranded) model of the all-new GAC Aion V, a small MPV-like crossover additionally launched on the identical present.
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The BZ3c’s platform hasn’t been introduced, but when it’s constructed on the identical line because the BZ3 sedan, it is going to possible use the identical e-TNGA platform discovered on Toyota’s different ground-up EVs. Which means it might doubtlessly see launch exterior of China, albeit in all probability not with the BYD battery or motor attributable to tariffs on EVs which have too many Chinese language components.
By no means say by no means, although. Possibly Toyota will work out a strategy to manufacture a tariff-friendly model of the BZ3c for markets in North America or Europe.
Contact the writer: kevin.williams@insideevs.com
