2023 Toyota bZ4X EV // First Look Up Close Review

Today we have a doozy. First of all, look at this weather, weve traded in rainy vancouver for sunny california. We have this beautiful red brand, new, all electric vehicle from toyota. This is the bz 4x, if youre, canadian, which i am we say zed but bz4x because were in the united states right now, so were gon na split this into two videos. Since there is so much to talk about first one were gon na. Do a full walk around and the next one we are going to do a full drive so lets get to it. Music, all right were going to start with the style. First of all, this has got to be one of the most radically styled toyotas around. I really like their design uh language that theyve been implementing over the last few years for sure so yeah. It looks very, very futuristic for sure its got a lot of angles, theres, obviously theres no grill in the very front here you do have active grille shutters on the bottom valence. Here you see this black portion angles up and it just joins straight into this air curtain. First of all, which is functional and then over into the wheel arch there and check this out, theyve integrated the wheel, arch molding. I guess straight into the charge door. Thats very, very unique, never seen that before for trims. There are four trims in canada and two trims in the us, so these are us vehicles.

This is the xle all wheel, drive and theres the xle and theres a limited trim in the us in canada. We get the l, l, e x, l e and the x l e all will drive with the technology package so for trim levels its a little bit confusing so make sure check with your local toyota website to see what trims are offered where you live. So this is the usxle above the light. You have a color match little brow piece that goes over. You have led daytime running light at the very top there and whats unusual. This looks like what everyones doing, which is the light bar up front, but this is just a piece of metal that trims right across. It looks good, though standard our led lights front and back. These have the led, projector style headlamps. If you go into the top trim the limited or the tech package in canada, you do get the multi led system, but either way theyre all leds front and back we come over to see the charger here. I like how they actually put separate doors on the charge: ports instead of a little plastic or rubber cover, so it actually has a latch and its spring loaded. So its a nice positive feel when you actually open and close them, so the black extends onto the mirror caps, and if you go into the top limited or a tech package, you can get a black roof now, so you can go a two tone paint job.

This vehicle is equipped with a proximity key there we go. We touch lock and unlock just like that. Now one thing to notice check this out in this day and age: everyones doing these recessed door handles that are not very winter friendly like lets, for instance, like you know the teslas and the ionics this one a standard door handle, so people can rejoice if you Live in those winter climates, the proximity key does not extend to the back door, though youll have to actually open the front first and unlock you can set that so it unlocks both of them. So youre, probably wondering whats under the hood well lets see lets open that hood. Once again, i like this black, the use of black here it looks really good. So underneath this hood, it looks pretty well like a standard engine really theres a lot of mechanical things. Going on in here, there is no front trunk or frunk for this bz at all. So in the back you get this huge rear window. You either get a duck bill or a split, a rear spoiler. Depending on what trim you get you get. The standard led lamps here, as you can see, no exhaust pipes. Obviously, since this is built off, their etnga theyre purposely built electric platform and they do have little stylish rear, valance here, a little inset. This does not. This is not functional there at all. Okay, opening the rear, you have an electronic latch, but this is not a power operated, lift gate on this xle le and up trims get a standard power, lift gate.

However, on the top trim, you get the hands free power liftgate, and what you might notice is how fast it actually goes up. This actually goes up quite a bit faster than the rav4. You can also adjust the height of it. However, you want. This is the maximum height here, so its quite tall. Another big bonus. There is a close and a lock button for the power lift gate. You know im a big fan of that so hit that and you go or your hands are full just a little kick there walk away and it closes by itself so once its up a large wide, fairly tall opening quite a bit of room here. I have both of my my camera bag and my suitcase in here, so you can have a look there, but lets take that out. Of course, if you need more room, you can fold the rear seats down theyre 60 40 and you get a nice flat floor. Theres no remote release for the rear seats in the cargo area. You will have to get it from the top of the seat, but nice and flat underneath the floor. You have a cubby area for the charger or knickknacks or you can take the whole floor. Its a multi level floor and you can shift it down to the bottom position and thats going to gain you even more room there. So for the exterior styling. I think it is actually quite unique.

However, it is very familiar it kind of has some rav4 looks to it and, speaking of rav4 in case youre wondering the size difference. Well, this new bz or bz is actually four inches longer in length. However, the wheelbase is six inches longer than the rav4 and thats gon na make a big difference when we check out inside and the height, though, is about two inches shorter, so its a little bit shorter, but definitely longer in all ways. So lets have a look inside all right: weve switched from the red xle into this great limited trip, so this is the top trim in canada. This is the technology package, the xle all right so were sitting in here standard. You would get cloth seats if you go into the higher trims. You get the soft text or the kind of the the artificial leather, and these seats here are heated and theyre, ventilated, theyre, very, very comfortable. This happens to be a white interior im, not sure if i would get white or not. Actually, we had that on our highlander and theyve actually fared pretty good over the years. If you go into just one above the base, l in canada, so the le you do get standard heated seats and for front seats and a standard, heated leather steering wheel. So looking up front here, you do get this cloth on all trims on the dash. Its quite unique uh um, i dont, think its gon na wear at all, because you dont really rub anything on that.

It looks kind of cool. Then you have a seven inch. Multi information display right behind the steering wheel and its raised up and its got this odd shape to it kind of like a little cradle. It works fairly. Well, however, im finding with the position like i like to sit its blocking the lower part of the screen, the top of the steering wheel. If i go and lower the steering wheel, i can see more but thats not how i like to sit, and i cant lower the seat anymore. So this does have power. Adjusting seats on this limited trim, so yeah its gon na depend on how tall you are and how you like to sit, though up front, you get a standard, eight inch screen, but just one above the base model you get into the 12.3 inch larger screen apple. Carplay and android auto come standard and theyre wireless as well as well. Alexa is also built in. So what can you use it for lets say you can um be in your house and you know tell alexa to start your car right or you know, ask her how much range you have on your vehicle. Maybe you want to you want to see that. So you may maybe i should go charge you, whatever so thats kind of handy as well, thats all built in also you get three years of a free trial above the base trim with remote services. So that gives you you know you have an app on your phone.

You can start your car, you can unlock it. You can control the heating on that. You can do all of that from your phone. If you get the top trim, though you actually can you get a digital key, and so that extends that so you dont even need a key fob. You can just use your phone to get in and go, and you can also share that, for instance, say maybe i might drop this vehicle off somewhere for a family member or friend, and when they get there, i can share the key with them and they can Have access to the key get in the vehicle and drive it, but that is only on the top trim. Only this interface is very, very quick, minimal leg at all, dragging this zooming in pulling out pinch zoom do all that our apple carplay. You can see in real time dragging very, very quick go back in there. We go into our reverse your overhead, your backup camera guidelines. We can change the angle a little bit. One thing i wish, so i would like to see the side of my wheels. I like to see my wheels, but we do have a panoramic view. We hit this and this is kind of wild. There we go, i guess thats our wheels there, so its looking around its making our kind of a see through of that. I would still like to see my individual wheels in the front, its really handy for parking near my house, where we have big curbs.

We have a bubble view. I can connect multiple devices at the same time and below that you have your heating controls. I do like how they have put actual real toggles to select your heating control. You have dual zone climate control here, however, you do not have a volume knob, a physical volume knob you do have buttons, though, which is not bad its better than a slider. For instance, you do have redundant controls uh i like that they use a toggle on the steering wheel instead of a button there, so that makes it pretty easy. Then you have your heating vents and your gear selector, which im a fan of im, glad that theyre theyre not like a push button im, not a fan of push buttons. However, this does have a nice feel and a its got some depth to it, because if i select drive, i have to push it down and then i cant turn it. I have to actually push and then bring it into reverse and then hit park. The mirror does have built in home link, which is handy, so you can pair your garage opener to your mirror. However, its kind of surprising that this doesnt have the digital rear view mirror like you, can get on the rav4 another thing: thats exclusive, on the top trim. You get the large panel roof its a fixed roof. It does not open. However, it does have a power shade and it does have this middle brace portion thats, probably for structural, for the vehicle itd be nice if it was just straight through without that bar though in the middle, you have a floating type of console, as you can see Here so you have storage room below love that you have a 12 volt outlet.

You have five usbs in total, so you have two underneath the floating console, one type a so those are type cs below one type, a plus qi wireless charging on this one, and you have two usbcs in the rear as well. This console here slides as well. It does flip up. You have two drink holders. I got my phone here and my sunglasses as well top trim, will also get you a nine speaker. Jbl sound system where the stock system is a six speaker system, so yeah its definitely different for toyota. Yet its still familiar its very easy to use lets have a look in the back. Now: hey there all the way over there yeah youre super far away. It seems like youre far away because its quite wide here you have a lot of shoulder and hip room back here and almost un limited amount of of leg, room and knee room here. The seat is set for where i would sit im almost five foot 11 and my knees are nowhere near the back of the seat so thats. How much room is back here and thats due to remember this has a six inch longer wheelbase than the toyota rav4. So, of course, besides ride, quality, youre gon na benefit from the extra room of that wheelbase. These seats in the back are also heated on this limited plus. You do have air vents, so the kids would be nice and happy about that.

However, i mentioned all the legroom, but i find theres not a ton of room to put your feet under the front seats at all, and i would really wish that i could kind of tilt the seat back. I dont really want to recline, but id like to have my legs supported a little bit more. So maybe if the seat bottom was a little bit longer or it had a little bit more height at the tip of the seat, bottom there so yeah. So these seats do not recline, nor do they slide forward or back in the middle. We do have two drink holders and a cubby area. You can stand your phone up in there if youd like if we want to sit in the middle youre, going to be raised up a little bit or raised up thats pretty well normal. Now, on the floor, though, we have a look at the cutaway. There is a small little bit of a hump, its ever so slight like this much otherwise, it is completely flat floor, but there is a little bit of a hump. So just be aware of that, i do like how the panel roof gives you more room. It just feels a little bit a lot more spacious, plus um. You do get one touch auto up and down windows, and you notice the windows go all the way down. They dont stop three quarters away. Theyre nicely tinted there. There are no sun shades available on this at all, but yeah.

If you have like kids like mine, they would have zero issue being in the back of here at all. Theyd probably want like an ipad here or something like that, though, but anyways lets wrap it up, thats it for a close look and walk around of the all new bz or bz4x toyotas, first, all electric vehicle. Let me know what do you think of this vehicle? Leave a comment: would you buy it? I think theyve done a pretty good job, but anyways make sure to like and subscribe and hit that bell notification. So youll know when the next video comes out in the next one part two were gon na.