Throughout history, the car world’s offered up some questionable names. The Ford Probe was meant to seem futuristic and space-related, but it turns out that word has other connotations. The Ford Five Hundred threw away a lot of Taurus brand equity, and Ford reversed course with the facelift. The Toyota GR86 had a space taken out of its name so people could actually search for it on the internet. And then we get to the alphabet soup of bZ4X, the first model in the bZ lineup.
Toyota’s first mass-market electric vehicle for North America certainly had its teething problems, from a stop-sale due to wheels falling off to uncompetitive specs to what seemed like a dead-end name. See, the “bZ” part of the name stands for “beyond zero”, the numeral is meant to convey that it’s the size of a RAV4, and the “X” means it’s a crossover. Add it all up, and you get Bees Forks, or Busy Forks, or just confused customers. It always felt like an egregious example of alphabet soup, so Toyota’s been busy cleaning it up.
Alright, the brand hasn’t been that busy. For the 2026 model year, the bZ4X drops the number and the last numeral, and just becomes the bZ. That’s it, two letters, no number, much simpler. Of course, the new name comes with a facelift and some serious powertrain improvements, including a 25 percent range increase to 314 miles on the XLE FWD Plus model, a serious output increase from 214 horsepower to 338 horsepower on all-wheel-drive models, and a NACS port. All much-needed stuff that should make the Bz competitive in the compact electric crossover space.
However, perhaps the most interesting part of this facelift and name change is the available heating system. See, when the weather gets cold enough for heat pumps to prove ineffective, most EVs rely on inefficient resistance-based heating, like a space heater but for a car. However, the Bz is available with radiant heating for the front occupants’ legs and feet that, when paired with heated seats and a heated steering wheel, should offer warmth with less of a range penalty in winter.
Oh, and I know we’ve already touched on the revamped interior with the facelift, but the updated dashboard and instrument cluster are still worth noting. Not only does the dashboard look less cheap than on the old car, the new center console seems better configured for both usability and comfort. Dual wireless chargers are a nice touch, and deleting the curved transition from console to infotainment screen may free up some knee room.
Goodbye bZ4X and welcome, bZ. It took a few years, but Toyota’s electric crossover seems to be morphing into the car it should’ve been from the start. Granted, pricing for the updated model hasn’t been announced yet, but expect to learn more as the year goes on, as Toyota says the bZ will roll into showrooms during the second half of the year.
Top graphic credit: Toyota
bZ is still a stupid model name… just a bit less stupid than bZ4X.
So 7 years behind Tesla. Making electric cars is hard!
Radiant heat is all well and good, very comfortable, but it doesn’t keep your windshield clear. Which means that you still need that resistive heater if it’s too cold for the heat pump. Which means you now have three heating systems in one car.
Just add complexity.
I’m also wondering where the heat is created…the only ways I’m aware of (to create heat from electricity) are heat pumps and resistive heating. Is there another?
The idea of radiant heat is that you create infrared energy that heats the surfaces it is pointed at directly, rather than wasting energy heating air that then heats the then heats what you actually want heated. So I assume they are using some sort of infrared light tube thing – which is still resistive heating, but much more efficient. Just like butt heat is still resistive, but heating the seat your are sitting on is more efficient than heating a large volume of air that then has to heat you. Or resistive heating of the windshield being more efficient than heating air and blowing it against the windshield, for that matter.
Thanks that makes sense
It’s still resistive, just much smaller because it’s going nearly straight to your legs. Tha + heated seats means less overall heat being blown around an otherwise empty cabin.
TIL that apparently Thomas is Roman.
“bZ” only sounds better because bZ4X was so bad.
I will never understand why Toyota isn’t leveraging their nameplate recognition as they build an EV lineup. Their core buyer wants a practical, reliable, not-boundary-pushing EV from a brand they trust. They will blindly buy a RAV4 EV or Corollacross EV as long as it’s roughly the size they expect it to be, regardless of if they’re actually related to the ICE version
It sort of ties into the Toyota bB (JDM name for the Scion xB) and so on. Not that anyone cares or that it makes the name a good one or anything.
They should have just called it RAV4z, and sold millions of them.
RAV4E
Or 4E
Or R4
Or bRAV(4)E
The monkeys will continue to hit the keyboard until we see Shakespeare.
So it’s a generic crossover that seems to have the same name as VWs underwhelming electric van, great.
They should’ve called it the Beretta.
Wouldn’t work. Japan has much stricter gun laws than the US.
But since it’s electric and the old guard at Toyota think BEVs are weird, they’re gonna spell it bErETTA… pronounced BEE-Retta… But then people like me will pronounce it BEER-etta.
Toyota’s gettin’ bZy!
The whole design still feels like half of Toyota wanted an electric Venza, the other half wanted an electric RAV (which they sort of already have, if you can find one).
Then a design chief said “I hate you all, we’re doing a THIRD DESIGN!”
It’s not bad on its own, it just makes very little sense to me. If you’re going with an all-EV platform, go Full Weird. This is only Half Weird.
The rear 3/4 shot in a dark color almost makes it look good?
Absolutely. But also even more Venzesque, it even has the little shelf booty.
Missed a huge opportunity to use the Conan edit Oprah BEES! gif in the header.
Yes!
We should all pronounce bZ as ‘BEES’… which I’m sure will piss off some people at Toyota.
LOL
That could be the most soulless, “functional” car interior on sale.
Still better than a Tesla imo.
The most interesting part of the facelift is getting rid of the horrific unpainted body cladding.
Now it looks like a proper new car, and not something that had a fender bender repaired by a high schooler.
I’m reminded of the Scion xB from 20 years ago. Toyota is really bad at change.
Merkur XR4Ti. In High School, I heard someone refer to it as a “Zer-Ra-Tee”
Ha! I called it the “Ex-Ratty” in my head.
Same
I like that they are following the history of the old bB (Scion xB in the US) naming conventions, even if no one but me and a bunch of old Toyota nerds would care.
Crap, I just commented the same…
I wouldn’t say they’ve fixed it, but I guess that’s… marginally better? I guess.
Somewhere in the automotive afterlife, the Subaru B9 Tribeca is sighing.
And Ford actually made things worse when it rebadged the Five Hundred as a Taurus.
People also forget that Subaru originally named the Crosstrek the XV Crosstrek. Which was also very, very dumb.
The Five Hundred was bad enough that naming it the Taurus somehow tarnished the Taurus name. Which is pretty amazing considering a previous version of the Taurus was comprised entirely of ovals.
I still call it the XV Crosstrek — it’s still called the XV in most markets. Or “fifteen” for the learned folks. 🙂
I have a special beef with “launch names” especially if they use other cars, then change them for no apparent reason. Just make a decision! It just reeks of marketing idiocy
XV Crosstrek
Passat CC
Pathfinder Armada
Accord Crosstour
Also:
Isuzu Florian Aska
Isuzu Bellett Gemini
Honda Quint Integra
It’s meant to be a gradual introduction of new names that may otherwise startle the punters. I assume it works, since it keeps happening.
And on the other end of the spectrum, GM would introduce five identical cars and give them all different names.
Ah, The Five Hundred. The good ole days. Not the car, but, getting paid $200 to sit in front of marketers for two hours, and telling my opinion of it.
And what was your opinion?
Having had a few as rentals back in the day, my opinion is that it was a car. That is pretty much my entire opinion. Wasn’t terrible, wasn’t great, just a boring unmemorable car.
Like the new boss of Ford at the time, I asked why the name change? You wouldn’t rename the Mustang would you?
Aside from seeing the occasional one still on the road and liking it b/c Ford sedan, I remember one being featured in very short lived 00s tv show starring Ray freakin’ Liotta as an insurance agent by day/leader of a group of high end thieves by night. It was his cover car of course.
Oddly I haven’t heard GR86 pronounced as great sex, but maybe I’m just not getting out enough.
I did overhear a couple of ten year olds arguing about whether a Toyota TRD trim pickup was a “turd truck” or a “tard truck” , so there is that.
My inner 10 year old would die happy if I ever saw a plumber driving a TRD Pro.
Once before my phone had a camera I waited at a light behind a Ford Escape with a POW/MIA sticker in the window.
If I ever see this company with a TRD company vehicle, I’ll have to try to get a picture- https://theturdherder.com/
As an inspector for a sanitary district, I was provided a Tacoma as a work vehicle. I lobbied for anTRD off-road, but denied. 🙁
There is a youtuber that has chirstened their MR2 the TURD: Toyota Unlimited Racing Development…
I always saw trd as turd lol
Same
LOL but its still so much easier / more intuitive to to type Bz as evidenced in the article … I’d say “fixes” is a major stretch … makes marginally less worse, maybe? I guess if the called it BZ ok? Why not just give it a name? You know what cars I know and can identify? Cars with names. You know what I totally have given up on unless its a highly identifiable car? Cars with stupid alphabet soups of letters and or numbers. What Cadillac is that? I don’t know and no one else does either.
Cadillac hears you and has Qorrected a lot of their model names.
Yep, I’ll take all the credit for that! Hah!
“Introducing the 2025 Cadillac…Converter!”
Yeah, actual car names are great!
I will never, ever remember all the dumb alphabet soup car names…anytime I see or read about them they are immediately forgotten
That makes even less sense now. At least the 4X part had an actual meaning as to an indication of where it sat in the lineup.
Bee Zee fo sheezy
Dear God, the ad campaign with Snoop Dogg practically writes itself!
I would say that Snoop Dogg would never, but then again, that dude will clearly do anything for a check. He’s freaking everywhere.
Busta Rhymes did an awful commercial for the Sienna a few years back, so there’s definitely a precedent for this.
Yes – but it creates awesome commercials like this mashup with Lee Iacocca.
Ha! I’m surprised I’ve never seen that one before.
Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella? Fo’ drizzle.
…I’ll show myself out.
Did you mean B Z 4 Xeezy?
I think it’s pretty incredible that this mid-cycle refresh bumped it from being a joke also-ran to a relatively competitive entry. Props.
I’m going to hold off giving props to Toyota until they reveal the price. If all this improvement results in a 8k increase, I won’t be so impressed.
25% tariff pretty much guarantees that,doesn’t it?
Like many things, the price will be dependent on the exact moment you attempt to buy it. Sort of like playing Press Your Luck and hoping for big bucks instead of a whammy.
I think you just summed up the last election.
The car is made in Japan so it’ll be impacted by tariffs
So is it pronounced “bzzzzz”? This ranks right up there with every automaker that insists on putting an exclamation mark in the model name (Volkswagen Up!, the Kia Soul “!”) in the annals of automotive nomenclatural ignominy.
It’s either Bzzz, which seeks like something for Volkswagen’s lawyers to look at, or Busy, either way, it’s a slight improvement, but still far from good
See, RAV4 works, because you can say it as a word. ditto 4Runner. bZ4X? Even if you wanted to call it ZEV4 that would have been better.
For a while, you could buy a 2WD 4Runner, which really should have been called “2Runner”.
You can still buy a 2WD RAV4
Which should rightfully be called a RAV2
But it would still have four wheels, so 4Runner still works. When Toyota picks up KTM, that’s when we’ll see a 2Runner.
I still hate the name, but man that looks 100x better with it being all one color instead of looking like half the panels skipped the paint booth! There are still too many body panels and cut lines, but it’s probably the best facelift I have seen in recent memory!