2025 Toyota bZ4X FWD Review

The world’s biggest car maker made promises that it didn’t deliver with its first fully electric medium SUV.

No more boring cars.

That’s what Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda promised back in 2017, but seems the bZ4X EV missed the memo.

This oddly named or, about the same size as Toyota’s best-selling RAV4, is quite lovely to live with. It’s just a bit, well, dull. Especially at $70,000 drive-away.

Tesla’s Model Y – the globe’s best-selling EV – doesn’t help the bZ4X’s cause. Elon Musk may have scaled new heights of bonkers at Trump’s inauguration, but the man knows how to make a desirable family EV.

Pitch a new-for-2025 Model Y RWD beside this Toyota bZ4X front-wheel-drive and the Tesla performs an automotive body slam.

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2025 Toyota bZ4X FWD sits at around $70,000. (Picture: Supplied)

The American is $2500 cheaper, travels 30km further per charge (466km vs 436km), accelerates to 100km/h 1.5s faster, charges quicker; has more cabin and cargo space, and boasts Netflix, YouTube, a 15-inch screen and properly pumping audio.

If your kids have any say in the family car purchase, try dragging them away from the Tesla’s 8-inch rear seat screen for video streaming, caraoke (karaoke in your car) and built-in games.

There’s no such cool factor in our Toyota’s bZ4X. But strangely, its boringness may be its trump card.

As Aussies flirt with buying their first EV, many want their new electric car to look, feel, smell and drive like their old petrol or diesel did.

The bZ4X – or Bazza, as we christened it – successfully does so. It’s whisper quiet of course, but steers, accelerates and brakes in familiar Toyota ways, while the cabin features a speedo in your eyeline and proper push buttons for climate control.

Jump in a Tesla and you’re greeted only with a steering wheel and giant screen. The latter houses the speedo and digital prods for simple things like wipers, headlights and adjusting air vents. Give me Bazza’s plastic slidey controls any day.

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Toyota bZ4X FWD’s 12.3-inch screen. (Picture: Supplied)

Other bZ4X wins are its excellent 12.3-inch screen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring, comfy fabric and leather seats (fronts are heated and the driver’s power), an auto tailgate and huge storage under a shiny centre console.

Those sitting in the back enjoy airy head and leg room, air vents and USB-C ports. But I checked with the kids, and they said they’d trade it all for the Tesla’s rear screen. Priorities, eh?

The cabin has too many hard plastics for a $70k car, while the 452L boot’s not huge, especially as there’s not even a space-saver spare underneath. A Model Y? It boasts 854L thanks to a cavernous boot plus an under-bonnet frunk.

Thankfully, the bZ4X looks less like a computer mouse than the Tesla, with a shark-like front design, slim LED lights and 20-inch dark alloys.

Those big wheels don’t help the around-town ride quality, nor does surprisingly firm suspension. But it’s blissfully easy to pilot with ample zip from the 155kW/266Nm single motor.

The Toyota bZ4X has a range of about 436km.

There’s radar cruise control with “feet-off” stop & go autonomy to bring calm in traffic snarls, and a lengthy suite of driver aids are blessedly non-invasive, grumbling only at major driver stuff-ups. Hyundai and Kia should take note.

So far, so sensible. Then you pick out a twisty country road and Bazza shows hidden talents. This electric Toyota handles with lovely poise and balance in tight corners, despite its two-tonne heft.

Lumps and bumps are well absorbed, and such is the instant torque hit, there’s performance enough for a bit of fun.

But was Toyota’s boss on holiday when the “no more boring cars” crew was blocked from giving the bZ4X a sprinkle of X-factor? As the cool kids say, it just lacks some rizz.

Good, says heartland Toyota buyers ready to dip a toe into EV life. That Toyota badge is like a cosy blanket of reassurance, and a competent but conservative debut electric car was always likely.

Hence it’s effortless to live with, and costs buttons to run. Services are only $180 a year, and an 11kW home wallbox charger has the battery full in seven hours. For me without solar, that’s 400km for $20 of electricity.

But the bZ4X is simply too conventional and expensive to buy beside bolder, smarter and fresher rivals: the Model Y outsold it twenty-to-one last year.

It’s may not be boring, but for an EV, it’s hardly electrifying.

Toyota bZ4X FWD

TOYOTA BZ4X FWD

PRICE: About $70,000 drive-away

POWER: Single electric motor, 150kW/266Nm

BATTERY: 71.4kWh

THIRST: 16.9kWh/100km

RANGE: 436km

WARRANTY/SERVICE: 5 years/unlimited km, $900 for five services/75,000km

SAFETY: 7 airbags, advanced auto emergency braking, emergency steering assist, lane trace and lane keep assist, driver attention alert, road sign assist, rear camera, front and rear sensors, rear AEB.

CARGO: 421L

SPARE: Repair kit

Originally published as 2025 Toyota bZ4X FWD Review