With a starting price of $44,990, Toyota’s first all-electric SUV for sale in Canada is eligible for provincial and federal rebates. Initially available in Quebec and B.C., it comes in front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive models

Toyota is bringing its first battery electric vehicle ever sold in Canada, the bZ4X SUV, to market this spring at a wallet-friendly $44,990 purchase price.

The vehicle is the first to be launched under the bZ series. The name “bZ” stands for “Beyond Zero” says Toyota, which also makes hydrogen electric, plug-in hybrid electric and hybrid vehicles. The automaker says green vehicles made up 28 per cent of its overall sales volume in 2021.

“More than a BEV, the bZ4X is a capable and versatile SUV, featuring an all-new, all-wheel-drive system for added all-weather confidence. As such, the bZ4X is a vehicle designed to offer Canadians a new, advanced, zero-emissions choice in Canada’s largest market segment,” said Cyril Dimitris, vice-president, Toyota Canada Inc. in a press release.

The bZ4X SUV comes in two front-wheel drive and two all-wheel drive grades. The vehicle’s base price makes it eligible for rebates in Canada, with the highest-end model coming in at $62,750.

Toyota Canada says it will initially be available only in British Columbia and Quebec. “Once production ramps up, we will sell bZ4X nationwide,” a spokesperson tells Electric Autonomy.

Toyota’s green vehicle offerings will be rapidly expanded as the automaker looks boost the roughly 55 electrified vehicles it already has the market to around 70 models by 2025. The company says 15 of those vehicles will be battery electric, including seven in the bZ line. (While Toyota has never sold a BEV in Canada, it did sell a small number of battery electric RAV4 SUVs in the U.S. from 2012 to 2014.)

“Toyota is a leader in electrified vehicle sales — in Canada and around the world,” added Dimitris.

bZ4X performance

As one of the few rebate-eligible electric SUVs on the market in Canada, customers will be eager to find out how the Toyota bZ4X performs.

Toyota says the bZ4X is 94mm longer than the Toyota RAV4 model and 50mm lower. The FWD model has 406 kilometres of range and the AWD model has 367 km of range. Both the AWD and FWD models are “built on the BEV-dedicated e-TNGA platform, a first for Toyota,” which was announced by the company in 2019.

Toyota says the bZ4X batteries come in two slightly different sizes — 71.4 kWh in the FWD models and 72.8 kWh in the AWD, with an output of 201 hp and 214 hp respectively.

Another key feature for Canadian drivers is that Toyota has paid special attention to winter driving features. In addition to the winterized climate control package, including a heat pump, the bZ4X AWD model comes with Toyota’s X-Mode, offering drivers the opportunity to choose either a snow/dirt mode or a snow/mud mode to “enhance vehicle stability and improve traction.”

In addition, the bZ4X will be the first vehicle to include Toyota’s new Toyota Safety Sense package, which includes pedestrian and cyclist detection, cruise control, lane departure alerts and several other features.

Toyota is not currently offering pre-orders of the bZ4X and line production is to be in China and Japan.