Toyota’s Electric Cars Might Finally Be Worth Taking Seriously

This week belongs to Toyota electric vehicles. First, the company announced that the bZ4X is getting a comprehensive refresh that’ll also bring a new name (it’s just “bZ” going forward, thankfully). And today, we learned that it’ll be accompanied by a new Toyota C-HR that shares little in common with the old one that left our shores a couple of years ago. This C-HR will be built on the same platform as the bZ, a platform that has seen serious upgrades since the bZ4X first emerged in 2022. Back then, Toyota’s first mass-market EV was uncompetitive on paper and underwhelming in person. Three years later, greatly improved specs and a starting price that’s come down in recent months mean that it’s finally time to stop ignoring it.

Off the bat, I should say that we don’t yet know how much these 2026 model-year EVs will cost. The C-HR will be smaller than the bZ, and the current bZ4X starts at $38,940, which is a good sight better than the SUV’s $43,215 MSRP when it first hit the scene. Toyota’s electric cars never qualified for the $7,500 federal tax credit under the current criteria, which probably won’t matter anymore if House Republicans get their way. In any case, we can reasonably assume the C-HR will run in the mid-to-high $30K region, which is quickly becoming a crowded segment for EVs.

To date, neither the bZ4X nor its Subaru counterpart, the Solterra, has offered compelling driving range relative to the competition, and that certainly hurt the vehicle when it first emerged, costing even more than it does today. Toyota quotes an EPA-rated 222 miles on a full charge for the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive bZ4X, and 252 miles for the single-motor, front-wheel-drive version. The overhauled bZ due later this year will start at 236 miles for the base model with a smaller battery, but all other trims will carry a larger pack, and they’ll max out between 278 and 314 miles, depending on drivetrain. That’s a huge improvement. Meanwhile, the C-HR, which will have standard AWD and 338 horsepower, is projected to travel up to 290 miles on a full charge.

Now we’re talking. Scanning the competitive set of $35K-ish EVs, the 300-ish mile mark is where you want to be these days. I drove a bone-stock, $35,000 Chevrolet Equinox EV a few months ago, with an estimated range of 319 miles, and I was thoroughly impressed by all of it, save for GM’s infotainment. The cheapest EV Hyundai offers is the Kona Electric, which is a few grand less than where the C-HR is likely to land, but also goes just 261 miles on a topped-up battery. Without incentives, the entry-level Ford Mustang Mach-E carries an MSRP of $41,185 and a 260-mile range.

Sure, range isn’t everything, and it wasn’t the bZ4X’s only problem. Unusual interior ergonomics was another, and, judging from the pictures, I’m not sure the replacement will solve that. Slow charging was also an issue. While Toyota’s new NACS-equipped EVs will come with a standard onboard 11-kW AC charger for better Level 2 performance, it appears that they’re still capped at 150 kW for DC fast charging. (The AWD bZ4X weirdly topped out at 100 kW, so we’ve reached out to Toyota to find out if the same discrepancy applies to the revised model.) Hyundai’s more premium EVs, like the Ioniq 5, can get up to 350 kW.

There will still be compromises, as there always are with reasonably priced cars, and doubly so for reasonably priced EVs. The tech is evolving rapidly, and the vehicles able to cross that range anxiety threshold must be affordable for most people. Toyota’s EVs were non-starters before because they couldn’t be part of that conversation. “The bZ4X’s biggest shortcomings (range, odd interior choices) could be far more easily forgiven if it were cheaper,” my colleague Byron wrote some months back when Toyota dropped that SUV’s price by a few thousand dollars.

One more thing: The C-HR looks good. Much as I liked that Equinox EV I drove, I didn’t enjoy photographing it. It’s an awkward vehicle, with a long wheelbase and sort of weenie-dog proportions, as far as cars go. If you need the space, it’s probably great. But I don’t, so the C-HR’s vibe is way more appealing to me. It’s got Toyota’s new face, which I already love on the Prius, and none of the weird cladding the bZ4X used to have. I’d still like to see it from more angles than the images provided here, but if I had to buy a crossover, I reckon this would at least be one of the sharper ones.

Ultimately, we’ll need to drive these cars to say whether or not Toyota’s finally arrived to mass-market EVs. But if the company can keep pricing in check, while advancing tech and efficiency to establish parity with its peers, there will be a new major player to consider. Better to be a little late than never show up at all.

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