Autonomy

[Yves MALATESTA]

Hello,

I've been using the BZ4x since the beginning of July, and I have to admit I'm not very satisfied with the range I've seen.

Before I bought it, I saw descriptions giving a range of up to 530 km!

To date, I've never done a 100% charge, and I've noticed that at 85% charge I have a range of 350 km. If I extrapolate to 100%, I should reach 411 km, i.e. 120 km less than advertised, the GAP is not negligible.

Could you give me some feedback, just to see if I'm within the BZ4x standard or not.

Thanks Yves

 

[Cyker]

The general gist seems to be if you turn the HVAC off and drive very slow you can get near the quoted figures, but if you need heating, esp. in sub-zero temps, then forget it - Range losses of a third to even a half in extreme cases have been reported.

TBH this is going to be a problem with all EVs as they don't have a 'free' source of heat like ICE cars, and it turns out there is a LOT of energy in heat.

The bz4x is Toyota's first mass market EV and it has a lot of the issues other manufacturers have already had and tried to deal with in their later generation models.

Part of this is because they're quite conservative with the Battery - Good for long term Battery life but bad for range. Other manufacturers quickly stopped caring about that and now try to squeeze as much out of the Battery as possible, since they figure it'll get sold on and become someone else's problem before the battery degrades so much it becomes their problem.

Personally I'm still waiting for these supposed ground-breaking new battery technologies to come to market.

[philip42h]

The EV Database gives a reasonably objective view: https://ev-database.org/car/1565/Toyota-bZ4X-AWD.

They suggest a 'real' range of 315km for the AWD; best case 460km for mild weather city driving; worst case 225km for highway driving in cold weather. Your experience seems pretty typical and within the range that should be expected.

[Yves MALATESTA]

@Cyker and @philip42h thank you very much.

I see I'm in line with your findings. In the end, autonomy can be a secondary issue if we manage to organize efficient recharging, but this point is the availability of fast charging stations.

Apart from that, the vehicle is pleasant and corresponds to my expectations.

.

[Mister Mike]

Count yourself lucky. I'm currently driving a Mercedes EV while my BZ4X is in the paint shop. It gets a max estimated range after a full charge of 230 miles. But in practise, those miles drain away much faster than with the BZ4X. Recently, I've been getting about 280 miles estimated range, which is pretty good for the cool weather, in my opinion. In the summer months I was getting real world range of more than 300 miles.