- Toyota's bZ3X seems to be seeing good initial acceptance, securing over 10,000 orders in its first hour of launch.
- The model is Toyota's first all-electric SUV in the RMB 100,000 class and comes with Momenta's smart driving system.
Japanese auto giant Toyota has launched its cheapest battery electric vehicle (BEV) model to date, the bZ3X, in China in an attempt to break traditional perceptions that Japanese EVs are expensive and unintelligent.
GAC Toyota, Toyota's joint venture with GAC Group, officially rolled out the Toyota bZ3X at an event last night with a starting price of RMB 109,800 ($15,150) for what Toyota said is its first pure electric SUV (sport utility vehicle) in the RMB 100,000 class.
The model's price and specs appear to be competitive, with GAC Toyota announcing shortly after yesterday's launch that the bZ3X had received more than 10,000 orders in its first hour.
After the model's price was announced, GAC Toyota's web server crashed due to too many visitors, the carmaker said yesterday.
The model is offered in seven variants, including 5 without LiDAR and 2 with LiDAR, making GAC-Toyota the first joint venture car brand in China to feature LiDAR.
The 5 variants without LiDAR start at RMB 109,800, RMB 119,800, RMB 129,800, RMB 139,800 and RMB 159,800 respectively.
The starting prices of the 2 variants with LiDAR are RMB 149,800 and RMB 159,800 respectively.
GAC Toyota is offering limited-time purchase entitlements for the bZ3X, bringing the starting prices of these 7 variants down to RMB 104,800, RMB 114,800, RMB 124,800, RMB 134,800, RMB 154,800, RMB 139,800, and RMB 149,800 respectively.
The bZ3X is the second SUV in Toyota's bZ lineup after the bZ4X. The bZ4X, which went on sale on October 10, 2022, currently has a starting price of RMB 179,800 in China.
The bZ series also has an electric sedan, the bZ3, which was launched on April 16, 2023 by Toyota's other joint venture in China, FAW Toyota, and currently has a starting price of RMB 169,800 yuan.
The Toyota bZ3X has standard SUV styling with a length of 4,600 mm, width of 1,850 mm or 1,875 mm, height of 1,600 mm or 1,645 mm and a wheelbase of 2,765 mm.
The model uses a large horizontal center screen in the cabin similar to Tesla models, measuring 14.6 inches, and the system is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip.
This is the solution used in mainstream EV models in China, although mid-range and high-end models are already starting to make widespread use of the next-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 cockpit chip.
The 2 variants of the Toyota bZ3X with LiDAR use the 5.0 smart driving system from Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta, and the hardware also includes an Nvidia Orin X chip with 254 TOPS of computing power.
Based on this system, the Toyota bZ3X enables full-scenario NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) functionality without relying on HD maps.
The model comes standard with a single electric motor with a maximum power of 150 kW or 165 kW. It has CLTC range options of 430 km, 520 km and 610 km.
Japanese automakers, including Toyota, have lagged behind China's rapid electrification transition over the past few years.
There's no data on how Japanese EVs have fared in China, as they've never made the major sales rankings.
However, new energy vehicle (NEV) penetration data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) offers a glimpse.
In January, China's NEV penetration at retail stood at 41.5 percent, up 9 percentage points from a year ago though down 7.9 percentage points from December.
Retail penetration of NEVs in January was 60.6 percent for local brands, 20 percent for luxury brands, and only 3 percent for mainstream JV brands.
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($1 = RMB 7.2478)
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