Toyota bZ4X has significantly surpassed all expectations in terms of capturing the market. Toyota Motor Thailand was forced to stop accepting reservations for its new EV just 24 hours after opening the order books for the vehicle.
The company claims to have received 1,064 pre-orders for the EV online within the first hour of the order booking on November 9 at 8 pm, which increased to 3,356 by November 10 at 8 pm.
According to the Bangkok Post, the automaker stated that this was significantly higher than it had anticipated and decided to halt pre-orders for the time being.
Thailand and Indonesia are the first ASEAN markets to receive the bZ4X. One of the reasons for its popularity is the incentivization of the buying and selling of EVs by the Thai government.
Furthermore, with Toyota using Thailand as its distribution hub for the ASEAN markets, experts see substantial growth in the bZ4X sales in the said markets due to an advantage in logistics.
Details
bZ4X is an all-electric subcompact crossover SUV that competes with Tesla Model Y and Volkswagen ID.4. It is available in the international market in two variants — XLE and Limited. Both variants provide a choice between Front Wheel Drive (FWD) and All-Wheel Drive (AWD) powertrains.
FWD variants have a single electric motor that makes 210 horsepower (hp), while AWD models have two electric motors — one on each axle — that make a total of 214 hp. The base FWD variants use a 71.4 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery pack with cells from Panasonic, while the AWD variants use a 72.8 kWh battery pack with cells from CATL.
According to EPA, the range of FWD variants is 228 miles (367 kilometers) while that of AWD variants is 252 miles (405 kilometers). The vehicle’s price starts from $42,000 and goes up to $48,780.
bZ4X is Toyota’s first step toward electrification. Although it hasn’t shared specific plans yet, the rising demand will likely prompt Toyota to expand its EV lineup in Asia.
