Throughout history, the car world’s offered up some questionable names. The Ford Probe was meant to seem futuristic and space-related, but it turns out that word has other connotations. The Ford Five Hundred threw away a lot of Taurus brand equity, and Ford reversed course with the facelift. The Toyota GR86 had a space taken out of its name so people could actually search for it on the internet. And then we get to the alphabet soup of bZ4X, the first model in the bZ lineup.
Toyota’s first mass-market electric vehicle for North America certainly had its teething problems, from a stop-sale due to wheels falling off to uncompetitive specs to what seemed like a dead-end name. See, the “bZ” part of the name stands for “beyond zero”, the numeral is meant to convey that it’s the size of a RAV4, and the “X” means it’s a crossover. Add it all up, and you get Bees Forks, or Busy Forks, or just confused customers. It always felt like an egregious example of alphabet soup, so Toyota’s been busy cleaning it up.
Alright, the brand hasn’t been that busy. For the 2026 model year, the bZ4X drops the number and the last numeral, and just becomes the bZ. That’s it, two letters, no number, much simpler. Of course, the new name comes with a facelift and some serious powertrain improvements, including a 25 percent range increase to 314 miles on the XLE FWD Plus model, a serious output increase from 214 horsepower to 338 horsepower on all-wheel-drive models, and a NACS port. All much-needed stuff that should make the Bz competitive in the compact electric crossover space.
However, perhaps the most interesting part of this facelift and name change is the available heating system. See, when the weather gets cold enough for heat pumps to prove ineffective, most EVs rely on inefficient resistance-based heating, like a space heater but for a car. However, the Bz is available with radiant heating for the front occupants’ legs and feet that, when paired with heated seats and a heated steering wheel, should offer warmth with less of a range penalty in winter.
Oh, and I know we’ve already touched on the revamped interior with the facelift, but the updated dashboard and instrument cluster are still worth noting. Not only does the dashboard look less cheap than on the old car, the new center console seems better configured for both usability and comfort. Dual wireless chargers are a nice touch, and deleting the curved transition from console to infotainment screen may free up some knee room.
Goodbye bZ4X and welcome, bZ. It took a few years, but Toyota’s electric crossover seems to be morphing into the car it should’ve been from the start. Granted, pricing for the updated model hasn’t been announced yet, but expect to learn more as the year goes on, as Toyota says the bZ will roll into showrooms during the second half of the year.
Top graphic credit: Toyota
Amazingly, they’ve discarded the asinine black trim around the wheel arches and such. Did they read that article The Bishop did a while back?
I would like to know more about this. My suspicion is that it’s like the infrared heater I have in my office that heats the surfaces in front of it rather than just the air, which does make a pretty drastic difference when it’s really cold out. It doesn’t heat up the car overall any faster, but it will make your feet and legs warm much quicker than a traditional resistive heater. A pretty clever solution, if so.
Do you mean like a quartz heater?
I use only a version of that, and it can be 90% more efficient than black body heating.
Spot heating is usually part of the strategy too.
Directionality is the advantage, but can be finicky to set up properly.
Pays off though.
Yeah, exactly. One unexpected benefit I found when I switched to it was that it heats the floor under my feet too, which the resistive heaters didn’t since the heat all rises away from it. If I run it long enough it will also heat up my desk top and it’s like having a heated steering wheel for my office. 🙂
The key is we are almost insensitive to air temperature.
We are extremely sensitive to heat loss or gain.
This explains why a tiny, but air comditioned, recording booth would cook you in minutes.
Body heat was reflected off the walls.
That’s actually the main benefit to insulation, controlling that.
As an xB owner since ’06, I salute Toyota’s alPhAbEtIc game-playing.
In South America, I smile every time I see a Mitsubishi Pajero.
Don’t google that at work.
Because I’m not an American I read that as “BEE-ZED” which actually sounds quite good. But “BEE-ZEE” just sounds like an Australian saying “busy”… not sure if it quite hits the mark.
But now that you explained the old name, I can actually remember it! Oops.
Would one of these with a lift kit be called “bZ Knz”?
Ha ha, this is hilarious. bZ for a car name? It’s not any better. It will always be Busy Forks to me!
Also, you could say that Toyota got bZ and took a “knife” to the “Forks”
Now off to listen to “Spoon”man…
They’ve had two letter car names for ages: bB, xB, iM, xA, tc, etc. Granted, most of them were scions and were trying to market to a younger crowd, but there is precedent.
Oh yeah, I was aware and they are ok; I just prefer names for cars but there are some that I do like since they are legendary, such as the Mercedes 240d, Volvo 240, Saab 900, etc…I guess those are mostly #’s…it’s more like all the BMW ones and similar alphabet soup ones that I never remember, ha ha
When I was (a LOT) younger, I remember a recurring Bob & Tom skit about a superhero called “Buttman”, who drove . . . Wait for it . . . A brown Ford Probe.
Does the refreshed model have mechanical door handles?
Surely what we all want to know about the refresh is does The Bishop feel vindicated or ripped off given that Toyota appears to have just implemented his design suggestions?
“MP4-12C” is 50% worse than “bZ4X”.
Totally could’ve called it the REV4, that was a choice, I guess it’s easier to just pop 2 characters off the emblem during assembly.
If the radiant heater works better then yay, but removing the glove box for it is lame.
As someone who used to bodyboard BZ is a great name for a car.
How does the radiant heat heater get warm enough to radiate?
Nuclear heater?
Excuse my ever apparent ignorance but is just calling it bz a new name or just dropping some of the name as no one understands it? Frankly I don’t understand why EVs have heating issues while being charged overnight I had diesel truck that had a block heater I plugged into my porch light and at 3am at 0 degrees the diesel started up on the 1st try and provided heat immediately. Maybe EVs need to stop using electric devices to do things analog does better and instead used electric devices for what they do best.
I saw one in person up close (at night) the other day, and didn’t immediately know what it was. It isn’t pretty, but it’s not outright ugly either. It’s a shame about the wheels-falling-off thing, but mistakes happen, even at Toyota. With the fender trim and bumpers painted to match the body (instead of being black) it actually looks ok. Plus, the mediocre reviews and sluggish sales probably means discounts and attractive lease terms, should you decide it works for you.
PS: I like the fact that it’s a Subaru as much as it’s a Toyota. 🙂 I’ve never owned a Subaru, but always wanted to, so I’d probably opt for their Solterra version of this car.
An improvement to be sure, but still a a dumb “name.” At least they didn’t call it a Camry Cross or something.
How about the Toyota E-Cross? Yeah, kind of lame, but bZ is extremely lame. Name it after a city, or an animal, or a fish, or something.
Or the Toyota Ruzan (Croatian for “ugly”), or maybe the Brutto (italian, same meaning).
I don’t want anything with “Cross” in the title, but you are right that it needs a name not an alphanumeric code.
Toyota: “New – With Less Ugly!”
Anyone else getting Beretta ads now?
Getting rid of the aztek costume is a good start. It looks so much better. I’ll wait for the independent range and charging tests before I pass judgement.