The Tesla Model 3 has been the de-facto king of mainstream electric cars for years — but Toyota is coming for them.
The latest new car in the bZ line, the bZ3 was announced in China as a joint venture between Toyota, BYD, and Chinese-owned FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd., who will be tasked with selling the plug in mid-sized bZ3.
FAW should have an easy time of that. The design of the bZ3 takes some of the most successful styling cues of the recently released Crown Hybrid flagship first shown to the public at Electrify Expo New York earlier this year. The bZ3 should be priced significantly lower than the Tesla, too, but still offers 20 minutes to 80% fast charging and 370 miles of all-electric range — putting it right in the middle of Tesla’s claimed range estimates for its basic and high-end M3s in the same market.
“Toyota has a history of more than 80 years as an automobile manufacturer and was the first in the world to achieve mass production of hybrid vehicles,” reads the official press release (according to Google, anyway – we can’t read Japanese). “‘Advanced electrification technology,’ ‘multipath electrification through HEV, PHEV, BEV and FCEV,’ ‘safety, reliability, high quality,’ and ‘Fun To Drive’ is favored by customers all over the world. The bZ3, which follows the bZ4X, the first bZ series announced in 2021, inherits these Toyota car genes.”
The translation is a bit clunky, but we think that anyone who’s owned a Toyota in the last 25-odd years since the original Prius came to market will be taking a good, hard look at the bZ3 … and some of those millions of people will buy it.
The bZ3 is officially available now in the Chinese market, with plans to launch the car in Europe and the Americas expected to be announced soon.
2023 Electric Toyota bZ3
SOURCE | IMAGES: TOYOTA.
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