Where else in the world or even history of motoring journalism could you get in depth info like this, no matter if its an EV or ICE car tested? Dare I say, perhaps nowhere? Kudos Björn, as far as I know, you are number 1 with these kinds of things. Cheers.
For the average driver, barring the overheating thing, the throttling probably won't be much of an issue. But the mathematical gymnastics you have to perform to get the best out of the car on really long trips is... Most people aren't really up for that stuff.
Even if you make one or two 1000+ km trip per year, you are going to have a problem with it... that's why if you know all this stuff you won't buy a Toyota... But Toyota fan bois who don't know this, and will buy it, what do you think they will say? Electric cars are bad and you can't make a long trip with it...
Me and my family was sceptical before the update about if we’ve made the right decision about buying the BZ4X, before update we tripped only about 600 km during one day and it was pretty good, now after the update we went on a long trip and we’ve managed to drive 3200km in 4 days. The longest stretch were 1200km in one day and 4 stops were only made. We are using most of the time the “autopilot” at 140 kph and somehow in summer conditions the consumption is only 19.5 kWh/100km. I just wanted to say that the BZ4X is now pretty good car.
Seems to me there is a fundamental flaw in the battery design with the physical pack construction or thermal management of the pack. That high delta between lowest and highest pack temperature..... Their throttling is seemingly there to mitigate those issues as a quick and dirty software fix for a faulty design. Born, you should ask Toyota some leading questions around that topic! Love your work!
Personally I think it’s still pretty useless that the car is limited to a random amount of “cycles”, which are also quite random. “Rapidgate” should also be a thing of the past in 2023. A good EV should of none of the above limitations nowadays.
Once again a massive effort on your part Bjorn and good information for Toyota to use for their next update. A 2hr improvement is huge and most Toyota drives will not encounter some of these issues.
I love the fact that Bjorn always discloses his finding in such great detail so people could make up their own mind depending what they’re looking for. I also feel manufacturers should be required to disclose more detailed charging performance/limitations other than mere 20-80% time and WLTP range, instead of us needing Bjorn to find out.
A car shouldn't be that tricky and complicated to understand. I mean, Bjorn you're a power user, having a lot of experience and knowledge around EV cars. How about a random user? the experience should be easy and seamless, not a question of "cracking the code" For sure, the update brought some goods, but from a major car manufacturer, it's still clearly embarrassing. What is the goal here? Get people annoyed by EVs and switch them to hydrogen because they have spent a lot of money on this technology? I don't get the point here That and the issue (mostly a technical flaw) with the 12v battery draining when the car is parked (see the video from the @OutofSpecReviews around this), I mean, what the heck Toyota ???
And here's the point: what does it matter how fast you can do 1000km with an EV? What's the average daily commute that you make? If you sort all your trips from short to long, where would you end when you look at 95% of your list? Cars should first and foremost be designed to meet our daily needs. The exceptional trips are less important. It's why I got my car with the smallest battery possible. I don't care about the long distance even though I'll be taking it to a concert 750km away from here in 3 weeks. My daily commute is under 100km.
@@Hans-gb4mv just shows you there was no need to implement the rules Toyota has, because no one is going to encounter them in real life. But if I do try and do a huge journey once in my life, this would be a bit bizarre wouldn't it?
@@Lewis_Standing Never say never ... but the usage will generally be limited. I think if you did that kind of mileage on a regular basis, you'd be looking at an entirely different class of car anyway. And for the few vacation trips that the family will do in a car like this? It will usually be good enough. Just my two cents.
@@Hans-gb4mv That's not good enough. For 50k+ you should be able to take that trip to Spain with your family in comfort, without restrictions and without engineering degree. The flaws this car has are simply not tolerable in 2023.
@@Hans-gb4mv I can see where you're coming from, but £50k puts it right among Ioniq 5/EV6 and a whole pile of Tesla's. All of which can road trip far more competently than this car, and are also great for daily use. This car's value proposition is (now) being a just about workable EV for Toyota fanboys.
I remember saying that toyota was doomed, because they clearly were very reluctant to go BEV, and lost resources on H2, and were 10 year late to the other manufacturer. Got an angry reply, telling me, that toyota is investing a lot in BEV, had a lot of project, and would bank on the experience that the other got during the 10 pas year. And here we are, with rapid and cold gating + charging limitations.. In 2023... Problems solved 10 years ago... Good work guys.
As a Toyota driver I would be perfectly happy with this result. I would be a little worried though about the large temperature delta causing uneven battery degradation. Not a deal breaker though
Dont worry. High temp difference could also be that flow thru circuit is lower or temperature sensor position is different etc. Its the maximum temp that worries. If you go from 50 to 60 deg you cut 50% of elektronics lifetime. Toyota seams to know this
@@ulyden1947 yes I've thought of this too... There are possible explanations which would mean the temperature readings might not necessarily be an accurate representation of actual cell temperature I suspect
You need to lose the brand loyalty and select the vehicle that suits you best for a similar cost. If it happens to be a Toyota, great, but there are soooo many brands far further ahead in their designs than Toyota. Don't buy 2017 technology in 2023.
@@ScubaSteveCanada I happen to own a car that is real fast roadtripping. But after owning the car for 3 months (5000km)still havent used DC fastcharging. I think many have the same experience. Here in Norway fastcharging also are extreme exspensive. So even with no DC charging posibillity my current car works perfekt 360days a year. Toyotas are great cars. A car is a lot more than 4wheels and a battery pack.
I do think this car will be capable of being used for 10-15 years, which is what many Toyota drivers want. I just cannot deal with this limit in fast charging range, which is worse with the slower charging CATL battery in the North American AWD Bz4X (throttled fast charging drops to 13 kW or less). For the right customer, it could be perfect, but for anyone who might ever drive a long distance in 24 hours, this is a terrible car for them.
With the Toyota bZ4X's exceptional range, elegant styling, and unmatched comfort, you can completely transform your commute. No matter the location, its advanced technological features, such as safety systems and remote connectivity, guarantee a convenient, safe, and pleasurable journey.
Thank you Bjørn! Thank you for doing a retest. I wish people could see your final words from ~17-18 min before they commented. I agree with you. Not many Toyota drivers would suffer the restrictions on charging. I happens to own a bZ and have driven it in Norway and Sweden for the last 6 months. It’s a great car for an average family who drives up to 5-800 km a day, then it will be okay with a break anyways. Not that many people hammer it 1000 km. If needed in this Toyota, drive as far as you can, take a overnight stay, and enjoy it as a trip. Too many are in a hurry to reach their end destination, but som like the trip to see more places along the way.
Toyota continues to impress with the bZ4X! Completing the 1000 km challenge with ease shows how reliable this EV is. It’s great to see Toyota improving its electric tech even further!
The bZ4X’s updated software seems like a game-changer for EV enthusiasts. Tackling a 1000 km challenge is ambitious-great way to showcase its capabilities.
@@ScubaSteveCanadaExactly right, though even there, it took a long time for them to start incorporating the tech into models not called Prius. The great thing about Tesla, is that they were going to live or die with their EVs, so while they struggled plenty along the way, and cut a few corners here and there, their EV tech was always important. Even early build Model 3's had leading edge powertrains ahead of what Toyota is currently shipping. Also, they were focused on charging in 2013 for sure when they started installing their first superchargers. Funny thing, the 2012 RAV4 EV had Tesla packs.
@@fjalics Tesla packs? What is with this misinformation. Tesla don't make their own batteries. It is a Panasonic battery just like the one others including toyota uses. What is up with Tesla/Elon dick riders and their revisionist history
Would be awesome for both Toyota and their BZ4X costumers if they made a software that limited the battery guarantee to maybe only 5y / 500.000 km, and charging/battery usage is less throttled, and when you choose this software you have to sign for the limited guarantee 🙂👍
I don't agree you should redo the test to be honest you should be driving like a normal person without calculator at hand. So you just drive when you feel you need to stop your charge until charging speed drops alot. You are in favor of Toyota doing all those calculations.
Then it wouldnt be a test, really. Definitively not a reasonably controlled one. Just pure subjectives, which differs from every person and the data is of questionable use. Its akin to people who ask "what l/100km / mpg / kwh does this car get".... "how long is a piece of string"... No, this is really the only reasonable way to do it if one wants it to be in any way scientific and comparable.
As long as it gets labled as a run with optimized planing its ok to do it like this. But the rapidgate should be adressed more seriusouly, it looks like its impossible to get that time above 20 degree celsius outside temp.
But then you would have to do that for every car and the historic table would be invalidated. The challange is for speed, and what is the fastest you can do the 1000km. Not what average Joe going on vacation is going to do.
I suspect that the people that this car appeals to will not be worried about the complex restrictions on charging 3.8/ 266% or whatever as they will either charge at home or once a week as they just don’t do the distances in a 24 hour period that would break the rules. There’s are way better options for those whose daily driving patterns exceed the “formula”. I would sooner have this than a Fiat 500, Mini Cooper S E (which I have ) or a Honda E where road trips are really out of the question. This car would actually work for me as my Mini is basically an electric supermarket trolley doing a 32 mile round trip 2-3 times a week and charging either at home or on 50kW public chargers
Yesterday i saw the first Subaru Soltera. Many people first get into electromobility and then they have such a car that massively ruins the driving or charging experience. I've also read in some forums that the heat output is not really sufficient. If you look at your videos, that's pretty weak. As far as I know, the batteries are on a cooling plate on the bz2X, how is good cooling supposed to be achieved there. If an electric car still has cold or hot gates today, it is no longer up to date. What about in summer at 30°. Do you charge with 20kW then? 200km with almost 90% battery wow that's extreme! I like watching your videos, you get great tips and can see the latest vehicles at the limit.
I'm thinking about rapid gate and charge limit. What if the car would limit the charging based on the charge limit? Let's say you have it set to charge to 100%, it will charge slower to not rapid-gate. If you limit the charge to 40% or something low it will charge with higher speed.
Bjorn, surely it can't be energy efficient to drive at highway speeds with Regen Boost on. The benefit is optimised in city driving or slow traffic. Well, that's what Toyota advised me. My experience, if I am doing, say 100km/hr and I switch boost OFF, it's like putting it in a sport mode and it accelerates off.
Hello Bjorn from Quebec, Canada smile😊 You mention that Toyota throttles the charge speed when the battery maximum reaches 48 and also when the battery goes below 20something… do you have a precise number for the cold-gating ? That’s what matters most in Quebec City LOL😂 for example the average daily temperature for June 2023 was 16*C (day and nites) so far this August is at 17*C…
Incredible amounts of mental gymnastics to help the car do the best time. I understand that Toyota is working to protect the battery, but they design of the battery and the software should be doing all this work. Normal drivers will just get frustrated with all this.
As a Toyota fan Im kinda sad seeing how they are doing with EVs. This brand has a special place in many people' hearts and I certainly am afraid for its future.
You needn't be afraid for Toyota's future. There are many regions in the world where EVs won't be a practical solution for many years to come. Toyota will continue to offer dependable mobility solutions for years to come.
@@ScubaSteveCanada Rebadge BYDs? You do realize Teslas also use BYD batteries right? So Tesla which every one of you praises and Toyota which every one of you criticizes, by your own argument is on the same level
@@miraphycs7377toyota and byd are partners in China, have a joint venture even. In the Netherlands the import of Byd is part of the same organization that imports Toyota...... .
At the time the BZ4X was being developed, Toyota was spending a lot of money on vicious attacks against EVs in their advertising in Britain and maybe also Europe. They were also spending big on lobbying the US Congress to keep supporting ICE vehicles and not to support EVs. So it would not be inconsistent if they had deliberately made this EV bad. But I suspect these issues are due to neglect of EV technology rather than deliberate design.
@@davidmenasco5743 One problem is that Japan is in a recession. So some low salary people that is why they are hesitant with EVs cuz too expensive. But with prizes in general are high I don´t think that will change in the near future. How many people can really buy a car nowadays without financing. Speaking of lobbying Germans do much of it in Europe so that people think how good they are (they are not bad the engineers surely do a good work). And I think they get much money. Once VW had the Dieselgate and now they´re the rescuer of the Earth... In the US there is the 25 years rule (can´t import and car until it´s 25 years old) and some German car companies were huge in lobbying that!
Björn, you know the charging algorithm, but most of the buyers won't. I would also not want to do some complex math before my road trip to avoid adding extra charging time. I also think your 1000km challenge is realistic. I have done a trip with my ICE for 750km on a single tank and I am.looking for an EV to match that. Yeah, I could throw in a charge in the middle, but with the reliability of the chargers here in California, this would become a hassle.
Poor Bjørn. And I feel with people who are uninformed and buy/bought this atrocity. And for all the people who will be queueing behind ‚fast‘ charging Toyodas
@Stoffelof and I have one also, and agree with you. Mine's achieving 4miles / kWh currently, (equiv to >250 miles), and I haven't had the software update yet.
I also have this car. Driven it since December. Fits perfectly our needs. Please dont feel sorry for me either. Use it all the time, even on long trips around Norway->Sweden. A car is soooo much more than world record charging speeds.
@@RemiVVM I'm so glad that you are enjoying your car, I have the Megane and I love it, the bz4x ultimately was too late to market, and I'm surprised at the amount of people who think they can boil down a cars value to the 1000km challenge, Bjørn isn't saying it's bad, but that it has problems... Which I feel like is a very fair point, that delta between coldest and warmest cell dang... Whether or not that is an issue for normal driving is the point for me
Dear Bjorn... I have an bz4x and I trying that ABRP start to work before 30 days end.. first obd readers was nexas 5.0 Bluetooth and didn't work, today arrived new one obdlinkCX and still ABRP don't connect to the car... It's works with Toyota or not? Asking because you may know? You are wiser
Very impressive! So you only have to be a battery expert and have a Toyota charging degree to be able to do road trips in a Toyota bZ4X ... easy peasy ...🤣
@skavcic actually no. I just drove from New Mexico to Oregon in my Ioniq 5 and I didn't have to think at all. It charged at almost full speeds all the time. I am saying almost because it was obviously very cold and I wasn't always able to get the full 240kW, but ~200kW. Try that in the Toyota and you're screwed.
Do you suggest this car?right now i have a rav4 hybrid looking for a plug in hybrid or ev. The rav4 plugin hybrid is much more expensiv than bz4x here in denmark. Also tesla y long range is a good option but also more expensive than this one. Which car do you suggest in this range (specialy size)
With the new software you can limit the DC charging speed. The steps are: max, 125kW, 100kW, 75kW and 50kW (if i recall this correctly). I wonder, if the 1000km would be faster, if you limited the speed to 100kW. According to the Toyota website, the time needed to charge from 10% to 70% or 80% are quite similar with 150kW and 100kW. You should redo the challenge, maybe with the Subaru ;)
No. Under report means when it says 880 km, real distance is 1000 km. Over reporting means when the car claims 1012 km, real distance is 1000 km. Well tested and proven over and over again.
@@bjornnyland actually, dictionaries have different oinions about that. "Overreporting - to say that you have done, earned, sold, etc. more than you really have" but if you apply it correctly at the end everything is fine :-)
My brain hurts from calculating when i need to charge, how much to charted and how often. Why would anyone do this to themselves? And pay money in the process?
Because the dealerships don't know this limit on fast charging is a problem until their customers take their first road trip, and come in, complaining. So people expecting a somewhat slow but reliable and hopefully long-lived EV from a company they trusted for years get burned. Then other companies get new customers.
@@thekat-dg9fx This is why we have Bjorn. Cars like this one should be publicly called for basically scamming the customer. To ask more money that a lot of other brands and deliver this....scamming.
It all depends on how the cooling was designed. Increasing the pump speed could help, doing a revamp cooling system could help too. Maybe placement of the cooling pipes is a poor design. Bjorn doesn't know. Munroe and Associates probably do.
The "punishment points" look similar to a "Leaky bucket" rate limiting algorithm. However, I still kind of don't get the purpose of the whole thing. I mean, there is some indication that a lot of DC fast charging might degrade the battery slightly more than slow charging. But is there actually some indication that doing a bunch of DC fast charges during one day is in any way worse than long-term one DC fast charge session every day? Does a battery get „tired“ when repeatedly charged-discharged during a short period of time and becomes more sensitive to fast charging (and charging it semi-slow somehow helps)? The battery has time to cool down in between and if that was for temperature only, they should be throttling based on the temperature (which apparently they do as well). If they expect some lithium not to integrate well enough during the charge and form something on the surface of whatever electrode it is, this should be used up by discharging the car during a drive. And considering the penalty-throttle should not kick in during "normal" use, I have to wonder why they even went to all the effort to do that. For most cars this would happen like 5 times during their whole lifetimes, so unlikely to improve degradation by anything measurable and if there are few cars that would be used otherwise for really long distance travel (unlikely even if this penalty didn't exist for this particular car), it might even be cheaper to just replace their batteries in the warranty than all the effort to implement, test, etc the system + the PR pushback for it even existing. Furthermore, I wonder if ABRP or other such things will be able to deal with this weird behavior.
This is a great video. A kind of commentary on the Tesla Model Y overtaking the Toyota Corolla as the worldwide No. 1 car. (267,000 sales, I think.) Over the years, I think these issues would have had a serious impact on my "family driving" two to four times a year - in particular driving across Spain on one day trips of about 800km. In real world family driving - with sensible family meal breaks - and the "rapid-gating," I think it would have resulted in a night's hotel stay each time. Put another way, it would be 2 days lost out of a three week holiday. So for me, and for many others, I'd suggest it's a deal breaker for this car. It's not just the slow "sustained" speed of 84kph, but all the maths that you're still having to do to achieve it.
That Toyota and the way it charges is Shhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!! I got that charge speed or better on my i3 5 years ago with half size battery!!!!
Is there anything good about this „car“? I guess for Toyota it is sufficient that the wheels do not fall off as a reason to bring this thing to the market.
@@bjornnyland Thanks a lot for the reply. I’m a great fan of your channel. FWD has slightly longer range and faster charging. On paper it should deliver a better time. Any thoughts on this as I’m considering the FWD version?
@@bjornnyland on AC, charging stops when you unlock the car, but if you don't remove the plug, it restarts after approx. 10-15 sec, so it*s better than Tesla..10yrs ago :)))
Really well testet 👍 But this shows that Toyota is at least one generation behind on battery management. Was the wheel nut thing just an excuse to test the car more? 😀
I have a feeling Toyota already has a reengineered battery pack in development. It will solve the temperature delta of the cells. This may also allow them to ditch the "penalty points" for normal BMS management, like all other EVs. So, with this new pack, the bZ4X will actually match the Ariya.
Honestly this is embarrassing for a company, that's been building ev-hybrid cars for over 3 decades now. How did they get left behind in battery charging?
This reminds me of the original new Leaf rapidgate (was that ten years ago now???) when people were driving entire length of the UK, around 1000 km to show how poor the charging was when in reality (especially with the charging infrastructure at the time) that was a very unlikely journey to make non stop and so not really applicable to what people who would buy the car would use it for.. It would be interesting to see something more typical, lets say a 500km drive but at much higher temps say 25C and see if any issues arose. I just drove through europe at about 500km a day for 4 days (old Model S)with just one charge needed enroute per day (which added no time as we wanted a break anyway) and then overnight top up and I think this car could likely have done the same.... or would it have needed two charging stops?
Why on earth are they still limiting charging?!? Nobody is going to use the car this way all the time! Leave it unlocked Toyota! If they do one time in three years, so be it. Sigh!!!
JUST LEASED CANADIAN BZ4X 2023, I ONLY GET 52KW ON 100KW CHARGER. IS THIS NOT FALSE ADVERTISING ? I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED SO FAR. I'M THINKING SERIOUSLY ABOUT RETURNING THIS VEHICLE.
HOW MANY PERCENT BATTERY DID YOU START CHARGING WITH? THAT IS IMPORTANT. YOUR BATTERY WAS PROBABLY TOO COLD AND THAT WHY IT CHARGED SO SLOW. TRY ARRIVING WITH LESS THAN 10 % NEXT TIME. THANK ME LATER.
HELLO SIR, I ARRIVED AT THE 100KW CHARGER, WITH 6 PERCENT BATTERY, AND IT CHARGED TO 70 PERCENT IN 45 MINUTES. THE TOP ENERGY INPUT WAS 65.2 KW. THAT IS STILL NOT AS GOOD AS I HAD HOPED.
Bjorn you are hacking the car with OBD2 scanner the normal user doesn't use. I think you should drive car as a normal user. If the company is not exposing info about the battery temperature or the "penalty points", you should not have used that info. You should also use only the car's infotainment for finding chargers. This is the only way to expose how usable those cars really are. As a power user and using your own route calculations, you are showing cars in the unrealistic light of usability.
It's a ridiculous limitation. Someone who does 2 x 1000km trips per year with 6 full cycles at 140kW charges, is a lot less load over a year on a battery that is charged a 140kW once every day. Let people use the car how they need to FFS.
Toyota was in the lead with Prius for decades, but didn't develop the tech. Now they are behind in full BEV tech. I hope this car is forcing them to learn quick lessons before 2025. After that, no time for learning lessons, those behind will be eaten alive by China EVs
Where else in the world or even history of motoring journalism could you get in depth info like this, no matter if its an EV or ICE car tested? Dare I say, perhaps nowhere?
Kudos Björn, as far as I know, you are number 1 with these kinds of things. Cheers.
Well said!👏👏👏
No one beats TBTP...💪
For the average driver, barring the overheating thing, the throttling probably won't be much of an issue. But the mathematical gymnastics you have to perform to get the best out of the car on really long trips is... Most people aren't really up for that stuff.
Even if you make one or two 1000+ km trip per year, you are going to have a problem with it... that's why if you know all this stuff you won't buy a Toyota... But Toyota fan bois who don't know this, and will buy it, what do you think they will say? Electric cars are bad and you can't make a long trip with it...
What is throttling?
Me and my family was sceptical before the update about if we’ve made the right decision about buying the BZ4X, before update we tripped only about 600 km during one day and it was pretty good, now after the update we went on a long trip and we’ve managed to drive 3200km in 4 days. The longest stretch were 1200km in one day and 4 stops were only made. We are using most of the time the “autopilot” at 140 kph and somehow in summer conditions the consumption is only 19.5 kWh/100km. I just wanted to say that the BZ4X is now pretty good car.
Km please do in miles lol now I have to do math lol
1988.388 miles that’s very good
Soo max charge we are looking at 320 miles fully charged
Do you have the FWD or the AWD version ? How can i do the update ? Do I have to ask to my dealer
@@emmanuelbardamu6204 AWD version, and yes, ask your dealer
Seems to me there is a fundamental flaw in the battery design with the physical pack construction or thermal management of the pack. That high delta between lowest and highest pack temperature..... Their throttling is seemingly there to mitigate those issues as a quick and dirty software fix for a faulty design. Born, you should ask Toyota some leading questions around that topic! Love your work!
Toyota wouldn't answer the questions, unfortunately.
How bad will the rapid gate be in summer, even on V2 super chargers?
Personally I think it’s still pretty useless that the car is limited to a random amount of “cycles”, which are also quite random. “Rapidgate” should also be a thing of the past in 2023.
A good EV should of none of the above limitations nowadays.
BZ4X is a great EV ... for 2017. Good luck Toyota in trying to catch up to your competition. More re-badged BYDs will be your only hope.
Probably because of the 10 year 90% warranty.
They don’t even call it a warranty here because you have to pay for it by servicing the car a lot.
Once again a massive effort on your part Bjorn and good information for Toyota to use for their next update. A 2hr improvement is huge and most Toyota drives will not encounter some of these issues.
I love the fact that Bjorn always discloses his finding in such great detail so people could make up their own mind depending what they’re looking for. I also feel manufacturers should be required to disclose more detailed charging performance/limitations other than mere 20-80% time and WLTP range, instead of us needing Bjorn to find out.
what a dedication ! a big thank you for re-doing the test. Toyota seems to understand you are a fair person
A car shouldn't be that tricky and complicated to understand. I mean, Bjorn you're a power user, having a lot of experience and knowledge around EV cars. How about a random user? the experience should be easy and seamless, not a question of "cracking the code"
For sure, the update brought some goods, but from a major car manufacturer, it's still clearly embarrassing. What is the goal here? Get people annoyed by EVs and switch them to hydrogen because they have spent a lot of money on this technology? I don't get the point here
That and the issue (mostly a technical flaw) with the 12v battery draining when the car is parked (see the video from the @OutofSpecReviews around this), I mean, what the heck Toyota ???
And here's the point: what does it matter how fast you can do 1000km with an EV? What's the average daily commute that you make? If you sort all your trips from short to long, where would you end when you look at 95% of your list?
Cars should first and foremost be designed to meet our daily needs. The exceptional trips are less important. It's why I got my car with the smallest battery possible. I don't care about the long distance even though I'll be taking it to a concert 750km away from here in 3 weeks. My daily commute is under 100km.
@@Hans-gb4mv just shows you there was no need to implement the rules Toyota has, because no one is going to encounter them in real life.
But if I do try and do a huge journey once in my life, this would be a bit bizarre wouldn't it?
@@Lewis_Standing Never say never ... but the usage will generally be limited. I think if you did that kind of mileage on a regular basis, you'd be looking at an entirely different class of car anyway. And for the few vacation trips that the family will do in a car like this? It will usually be good enough.
Just my two cents.
@@Hans-gb4mv That's not good enough. For 50k+ you should be able to take that trip to Spain with your family in comfort, without restrictions and without engineering degree. The flaws this car has are simply not tolerable in 2023.
@@Hans-gb4mv I can see where you're coming from, but £50k puts it right among Ioniq 5/EV6 and a whole pile of Tesla's. All of which can road trip far more competently than this car, and are also great for daily use. This car's value proposition is (now) being a just about workable EV for Toyota fanboys.
I remember saying that toyota was doomed, because they clearly were very reluctant to go BEV, and lost resources on H2, and were 10 year late to the other manufacturer.
Got an angry reply, telling me, that toyota is investing a lot in BEV, had a lot of project, and would bank on the experience that the other got during the 10 pas year.
And here we are, with rapid and cold gating + charging limitations.. In 2023... Problems solved 10 years ago...
Good work guys.
As a Toyota driver I would be perfectly happy with this result. I would be a little worried though about the large temperature delta causing uneven battery degradation. Not a deal breaker though
Dont worry. High temp difference could also be that flow thru circuit is lower or temperature sensor position is different etc. Its the maximum temp that worries. If you go from 50 to 60 deg you cut 50% of elektronics lifetime. Toyota seams to know this
@@ulyden1947 yes I've thought of this too... There are possible explanations which would mean the temperature readings might not necessarily be an accurate representation of actual cell temperature I suspect
You need to lose the brand loyalty and select the vehicle that suits you best for a similar cost. If it happens to be a Toyota, great, but there are soooo many brands far further ahead in their designs than Toyota. Don't buy 2017 technology in 2023.
@@ScubaSteveCanada I happen to own a car that is real fast roadtripping. But after owning the car for 3 months (5000km)still havent used DC fastcharging.
I think many have the same experience. Here in Norway fastcharging also are extreme exspensive. So even with no DC charging posibillity my current car works perfekt 360days a year. Toyotas are great cars. A car is a lot more than 4wheels and a battery pack.
I do think this car will be capable of being used for 10-15 years, which is what many Toyota drivers want. I just cannot deal with this limit in fast charging range, which is worse with the slower charging CATL battery in the North American AWD Bz4X (throttled fast charging drops to 13 kW or less). For the right customer, it could be perfect, but for anyone who might ever drive a long distance in 24 hours, this is a terrible car for them.
With the Toyota bZ4X's exceptional range, elegant styling, and unmatched comfort, you can completely transform your commute. No matter the location, its advanced technological features, such as safety systems and remote connectivity, guarantee a convenient, safe, and pleasurable journey.
A real-world demonstration of the difference between "peak" charging and "the curve". EV makers advertise the peak, but hope we ignore the curve.
Thank you Bjørn! Thank you for doing a retest. I wish people could see your final words from ~17-18 min before they commented. I agree with you. Not many Toyota drivers would suffer the restrictions on charging. I happens to own a bZ and have driven it in Norway and Sweden for the last 6 months. It’s a great car for an average family who drives up to 5-800 km a day, then it will be okay with a break anyways. Not that many people hammer it 1000 km. If needed in this Toyota, drive as far as you can, take a overnight stay, and enjoy it as a trip. Too many are in a hurry to reach their end destination, but som like the trip to see more places along the way.
Toyota continues to impress with the bZ4X! Completing the 1000 km challenge with ease shows how reliable this EV is. It’s great to see Toyota improving its electric tech even further!
The bZ4X’s updated software seems like a game-changer for EV enthusiasts. Tackling a 1000 km challenge is ambitious-great way to showcase its capabilities.
Bjorn just admit it Toyota just dont get EVs and charging back to the drawing board 😆😁😁
Toyota want to live or die with their hybrids.
@@ScubaSteveCanadaExactly right, though even there, it took a long time for them to start incorporating the tech into models not called Prius. The great thing about Tesla, is that they were going to live or die with their EVs, so while they struggled plenty along the way, and cut a few corners here and there, their EV tech was always important. Even early build Model 3's had leading edge powertrains ahead of what Toyota is currently shipping. Also, they were focused on charging in 2013 for sure when they started installing their first superchargers. Funny thing, the 2012 RAV4 EV had Tesla packs.
cope harder
@@fjalics Tesla packs? What is with this misinformation. Tesla don't make their own batteries. It is a Panasonic battery just like the one others including toyota uses. What is up with Tesla/Elon dick riders and their revisionist history
@@ScubaSteveCanada Toyota's so-called hybrids are all smoke and mirrors, they use almost as much fuel as plain diesel- or petrol cars do.
Would be awesome for both Toyota and their BZ4X costumers if they made a software that limited the battery guarantee to maybe only 5y / 500.000 km, and charging/battery usage is less throttled, and when you choose this software you have to sign for the limited guarantee 🙂👍
I don't agree you should redo the test to be honest you should be driving like a normal person without calculator at hand. So you just drive when you feel you need to stop your charge until charging speed drops alot. You are in favor of Toyota doing all those calculations.
Totally agreed. As I said, Bjorn is a power user, what about a classic / random user ?
Then it wouldnt be a test, really. Definitively not a reasonably controlled one. Just pure subjectives, which differs from every person and the data is of questionable use. Its akin to people who ask "what l/100km / mpg / kwh does this car get".... "how long is a piece of string"...
No, this is really the only reasonable way to do it if one wants it to be in any way scientific and comparable.
As long as it gets labled as a run with optimized planing its ok to do it like this.
But the rapidgate should be adressed more seriusouly, it looks like its impossible to get that time above 20 degree celsius outside temp.
But then you would have to do that for every car and the historic table would be invalidated. The challange is for speed, and what is the fastest you can do the 1000km. Not what average Joe going on vacation is going to do.
Björn power uses all EVs. So if he keeps doing the same only then these tests stay relevant. Otherwise it would be a different test
I suspect that the people that this car appeals to will not be worried about the complex restrictions on charging 3.8/ 266% or whatever as they will either charge at home or once a week as they just don’t do the distances in a 24 hour period that would break the rules. There’s are way better options for those whose daily driving patterns exceed the “formula”. I would sooner have this than a Fiat 500, Mini Cooper S E (which I have ) or a Honda E where road trips are really out of the question. This car would actually work for me as my Mini is basically an electric supermarket trolley doing a 32 mile round trip 2-3 times a week and charging either at home or on 50kW public chargers
Can you show on the info screen how to identify that the car has the software update?
Yesterday i saw the first Subaru Soltera.
Many people first get into electromobility and then they have such a car that massively ruins the driving or charging experience. I've also read in some forums that the heat output is not really sufficient. If you look at your videos, that's pretty weak. As far as I know, the batteries are on a cooling plate on the bz2X, how is good cooling supposed to be achieved there. If an electric car still has cold or hot gates today, it is no longer up to date. What about in summer at 30°. Do you charge with 20kW then?
200km with almost 90% battery wow that's extreme!
I like watching your videos, you get great tips and can see the latest vehicles at the limit.
I'm thinking about rapid gate and charge limit. What if the car would limit the charging based on the charge limit? Let's say you have it set to charge to 100%, it will charge slower to not rapid-gate. If you limit the charge to 40% or something low it will charge with higher speed.
Bjorn, surely it can't be energy efficient to drive at highway speeds with Regen Boost on. The benefit is optimised in city driving or slow traffic. Well, that's what Toyota advised me. My experience, if I am doing, say 100km/hr and I switch boost OFF, it's like putting it in a sport mode and it accelerates off.
Regen boost is irrelevant here.
Hello Bjorn from Quebec, Canada smile😊 You mention that Toyota throttles the charge speed when the battery maximum reaches 48 and also when the battery goes below 20something… do you have a precise number for the cold-gating ? That’s what matters most in Quebec City LOL😂 for example the average daily temperature for June 2023 was 16*C (day and nites) so far this August is at 17*C…
Incredible amounts of mental gymnastics to help the car do the best time. I understand that Toyota is working to protect the battery, but they design of the battery and the software should be doing all this work. Normal drivers will just get frustrated with all this.
I don't understand why Toyota throttles the charging. Is there a technical reason or do they just not like selling cars ?
should do it again, by driving it as if it was a Tesla or other EVs, and no OBD scanner. And see if the time would be the same!
Love all the comments on this video, like you're all driving 1000km every single day. A post full of tampon salesmen.
🤣 6years old classic Ioniq with 28kWh battery is smiling for those improvements 😜
Not sure what the difference is between throttling, rapid gate and cold gate.. can you explain?
@bjornnyland you should test the newest BZ4X with improved winter charging
Wow, I am so happy with my Model Y, no need to think about the battery temperature, it's just charging fast while using much less kWh/km
Wow you own a Tesla? What a guy.
As a Toyota fan Im kinda sad seeing how they are doing with EVs. This brand has a special place in many people' hearts and I certainly am afraid for its future.
They need to re-badge BYDs until they can design a good EV. Learn from the best; not something they do for EVs.
You needn't be afraid for Toyota's future. There are many regions in the world where EVs won't be a practical solution for many years to come. Toyota will continue to offer dependable mobility solutions for years to come.
@@ScubaSteveCanada Rebadge BYDs? You do realize Teslas also use BYD batteries right? So Tesla which every one of you praises and Toyota which every one of you criticizes, by your own argument is on the same level
@@miraphycs7377toyota and byd are partners in China, have a joint venture even. In the Netherlands the import of Byd is part of the same organization that imports Toyota...... .
This car... Almost make you wonder if Toyota has an ulterior motive here.
Just too far behind, nothing else.
At the time the BZ4X was being developed, Toyota was spending a lot of money on vicious attacks against EVs in their advertising in Britain and maybe also Europe. They were also spending big on lobbying the US Congress to keep supporting ICE vehicles and not to support EVs.
So it would not be inconsistent if they had deliberately made this EV bad. But I suspect these issues are due to neglect of EV technology rather than deliberate design.
@@davidmenasco5743 One problem is that Japan is in a recession. So some low salary people that is why they are hesitant with EVs cuz too expensive. But with prizes in general are high I don´t think that will change in the near future. How many people can really buy a car nowadays without financing.
Speaking of lobbying Germans do much of it in Europe so that people think how good they are (they are not bad the engineers surely do a good work). And I think they get much money. Once VW had the Dieselgate and now they´re the rescuer of the Earth... In the US there is the 25 years rule (can´t import and car until it´s 25 years old) and some German car companies were huge in lobbying that!
Try the 2wd version as some in the us have mentioned the battery they use is different supplier to the ones in the awd version
Ride on the 45 kW wave. I heard that before, in 2015 when you tested Nissan Leaf's 😂
2:55 Funny, my 2013 Chevy Volt with 305K miles and a 16.5KWh battery (when new) can do up to 60KW regen at highway speeds
redeeming feature of the bz4x/solterra - Offroad capabilities are better then the rest. Up there with the Rivian according to Out of spec reviews.
Yeah. But then, roads exist.
Yep. I got mine in December so got to use it in the snow a lot. It's absolutely brilliant in that respect. The Subaru AWD technology is awesome.
@@adrianguggisberg3656 And other places roads do not exist and there is awesome scenery.
Thank you for making this video
Does the twin subaru solterra use the same software and charging limiter?
Yes
Björn, you know the charging algorithm, but most of the buyers won't. I would also not want to do some complex math before my road trip to avoid adding extra charging time. I also think your 1000km challenge is realistic. I have done a trip with my ICE for 750km on a single tank and I am.looking for an EV to match that. Yeah, I could throw in a charge in the middle, but with the reliability of the chargers here in California, this would become a hassle.
Poor Bjørn. And I feel with people who are uninformed and buy/bought this atrocity. And for all the people who will be queueing behind ‚fast‘ charging Toyodas
I bought this car. It's perfect for our needs. Please don't feel sorry for me.
@@stoffelof3293 F
@Stoffelof and I have one also, and agree with you. Mine's achieving 4miles / kWh currently, (equiv to >250 miles), and I haven't had the software update yet.
I also have this car. Driven it since December. Fits perfectly our needs. Please dont feel sorry for me either. Use it all the time, even on long trips around Norway->Sweden. A car is soooo much more than world record charging speeds.
@@RemiVVM I'm so glad that you are enjoying your car, I have the Megane and I love it, the bz4x ultimately was too late to market, and I'm surprised at the amount of people who think they can boil down a cars value to the 1000km challenge, Bjørn isn't saying it's bad, but that it has problems... Which I feel like is a very fair point, that delta between coldest and warmest cell dang... Whether or not that is an issue for normal driving is the point for me
Dear Bjorn... I have an bz4x and I trying that ABRP start to work before 30 days end.. first obd readers was nexas 5.0 Bluetooth and didn't work, today arrived new one obdlinkCX and still ABRP don't connect to the car... It's works with Toyota or not? Asking because you may know? You are wiser
Very impressive! So you only have to be a battery expert and have a Toyota charging degree to be able to do road trips in a Toyota bZ4X ... easy peasy ...🤣
Just like for every other EV.
@skavcic actually no. I just drove from New Mexico to Oregon in my Ioniq 5 and I didn't have to think at all. It charged at almost full speeds all the time. I am saying almost because it was obviously very cold and I wasn't always able to get the full 240kW, but ~200kW. Try that in the Toyota and you're screwed.
If I want punishment points, I can see a Dominatrix for a lot less!
Do you suggest this car?right now i have a rav4 hybrid looking for a plug in hybrid or ev. The rav4 plugin hybrid is much more expensiv than bz4x here in denmark.
Also tesla y long range is a good option but also more expensive than this one.
Which car do you suggest in this range (specialy size)
Are you going to get the updated steering wheel
With the new software you can limit the DC charging speed. The steps are: max, 125kW, 100kW, 75kW and 50kW (if i recall this correctly).
I wonder, if the 1000km would be faster, if you limited the speed to 100kW. According to the Toyota website, the time needed to charge from 10% to 70% or 80% are quite similar with 150kW and 100kW. You should redo the challenge, maybe with the Subaru ;)
Yes on the redoing the test and if possible, on a Subaru. Thanks!
@14:25 if it underreports by 1.2%, shouldn't you be heading to 1012km trip to get an accurate 1000km?
No. Under report means when it says 880 km, real distance is 1000 km. Over reporting means when the car claims 1012 km, real distance is 1000 km. Well tested and proven over and over again.
@@bjornnyland actually, dictionaries have different oinions about that. "Overreporting - to say that you have done, earned, sold, etc. more than you really have"
but if you apply it correctly at the end everything is fine :-)
Two hours less...it does means that if toyota re-do the software could make a different "car" with the simplest software possible
My brain hurts from calculating when i need to charge, how much to charted and how often. Why would anyone do this to themselves? And pay money in the process?
Because the dealerships don't know this limit on fast charging is a problem until their customers take their first road trip, and come in, complaining. So people expecting a somewhat slow but reliable and hopefully long-lived EV from a company they trusted for years get burned. Then other companies get new customers.
@@thekat-dg9fx This is why we have Bjorn. Cars like this one should be publicly called for basically scamming the customer. To ask more money that a lot of other brands and deliver this....scamming.
OBD monitoring is the must accessory for this car. 😂
Toyota: Put the battery cooling pump into turbo. Maybe that will flatten out the suboptimal cooling system, which seems to be the root problem.
It all depends on how the cooling was designed. Increasing the pump speed could help, doing a revamp cooling system could help too. Maybe placement of the cooling pipes is a poor design. Bjorn doesn't know. Munroe and Associates probably do.
Hello, how can I update the software so that it loads faster? Thank you, I hope for your help.
You need to take your car back to the dealership to get the newest update.
I would think that you are not old enough to drive this car....
@@OyvindSOyvindS You are very ignorant of life, making value judgments without knowing me.
how do you update to a new software?
This car is so many years behind.... is Toyota using Internet Explorer to design it?
The "punishment points" look similar to a "Leaky bucket" rate limiting algorithm.
However, I still kind of don't get the purpose of the whole thing. I mean, there is some indication that a lot of DC fast charging might degrade the battery slightly more than slow charging. But is there actually some indication that doing a bunch of DC fast charges during one day is in any way worse than long-term one DC fast charge session every day? Does a battery get „tired“ when repeatedly charged-discharged during a short period of time and becomes more sensitive to fast charging (and charging it semi-slow somehow helps)? The battery has time to cool down in between and if that was for temperature only, they should be throttling based on the temperature (which apparently they do as well). If they expect some lithium not to integrate well enough during the charge and form something on the surface of whatever electrode it is, this should be used up by discharging the car during a drive. And considering the penalty-throttle should not kick in during "normal" use, I have to wonder why they even went to all the effort to do that. For most cars this would happen like 5 times during their whole lifetimes, so unlikely to improve degradation by anything measurable and if there are few cars that would be used otherwise for really long distance travel (unlikely even if this penalty didn't exist for this particular car), it might even be cheaper to just replace their batteries in the warranty than all the effort to implement, test, etc the system + the PR pushback for it even existing.
Furthermore, I wonder if ABRP or other such things will be able to deal with this weird behavior.
Well. I think at least they will have a battery that last.
ua-cam.com/video/pOQQTwYkg08/v-deo.html
The battery will last a bit longer if all the cars sit forever in the showroom.
Not necessarily with that significant difference in battery temps.
Manual adjusting amperage on HPCs for the win! But that feature will never be implemented 😢
Spreadsheet not updated yet?
It's updated now.
This is a great video. A kind of commentary on the Tesla Model Y overtaking the Toyota Corolla as the worldwide No. 1 car. (267,000 sales, I think.)
Over the years, I think these issues would have had a serious impact on my "family driving" two to four times a year - in particular driving across Spain on one day trips of about 800km. In real world family driving - with sensible family meal breaks - and the "rapid-gating," I think it would have resulted in a night's hotel stay each time. Put another way, it would be 2 days lost out of a three week holiday.
So for me, and for many others, I'd suggest it's a deal breaker for this car. It's not just the slow "sustained" speed of 84kph, but all the maths that you're still having to do to achieve it.
Where is that software from?
That Toyota and the way it charges is Shhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!
I got that charge speed or better on my i3 5 years ago with half size battery!!!!
Great review. Very much informative. Good work again 👍
Not for taxi use
Is there anything good about this „car“? I guess for Toyota it is sufficient that the wheels do not fall off as a reason to bring this thing to the market.
Why does Toyota do this cycle limiting thing?
Battery health
Toyota? My world is !>200 km in radius! Take that TB! Better: Toyota? I‘ll take season two part 4 or five! Give it to me!
Hvad hedder den obd så man kan bruge mobilen
40KW charging isn't that bad of a throttle, better than L2 but still bizarre algorithm.
EDIT: US CATL chemistried BZ4X is way worse
In North America, the AWD Bz4X has a slower CATL battery that maxes at 100 kW. When throttled, it drops to 13 kW or less.
40KW charging was great ... in 2017.
@@thekat-dg9fx ah, right that makes sense 'out of spec ' channel really showed a bad picture
Thank you
...simply the best....thxalot
Has anyone done a 1000km challenge with the FWD version?
No
@@bjornnyland Thanks a lot for the reply. I’m a great fan of your channel.
FWD has slightly longer range and faster charging. On paper it should deliver a better time. Any thoughts on this as I’m considering the FWD version?
So at alll you think it doesn’t worth a money ?? Or this car at all disappoint you ???
Bjorn dis you do the 0 miles test?
Ya
@@bjornnyland on AC, charging stops when you unlock the car, but if you don't remove the plug, it restarts after approx. 10-15 sec, so it*s better than Tesla..10yrs ago :)))
Toyota did not hit a home run ⚾️ with this car. Maybe only a double
Oh, toyota... you have a looooong way to go... to catch up to EVs from a decade ago.
Maybe you can try the xc40 awd once again dice there is much improvement on the xc40.
Hilsen norsk Xc40 sjåfør
I did C40 1000 km challenge already.
@@bjornnyland and that very similar off course. Takk
Really well testet 👍 But this shows that Toyota is at least one generation behind on battery management. Was the wheel nut thing just an excuse to test the car more? 😀
Recalls only happen for safety issues. But, like you, I question why this happened to Toyota.
I never thought “the future of personal transportation” would be so awkward.
I have a feeling Toyota already has a reengineered battery pack in development. It will solve the temperature delta of the cells. This may also allow them to ditch the "penalty points" for normal BMS management, like all other EVs. So, with this new pack, the bZ4X will actually match the Ariya.
Honestly this is embarrassing for a company, that's been building ev-hybrid cars for over 3 decades now. How did they get left behind in battery charging?
This reminds me of the original new Leaf rapidgate (was that ten years ago now???) when people were driving entire length of the UK, around 1000 km to show how poor the charging was when in reality (especially with the charging infrastructure at the time) that was a very unlikely journey to make non stop and so not really applicable to what people who would buy the car would use it for..
It would be interesting to see something more typical, lets say a 500km drive but at much higher temps say 25C and see if any issues arose. I just drove through europe at about 500km a day for 4 days (old Model S)with just one charge needed enroute per day (which added no time as we wanted a break anyway) and then overnight top up and I think this car could likely have done the same.... or would it have needed two charging stops?
Why on earth are they still limiting charging?!? Nobody is going to use the car this way all the time! Leave it unlocked Toyota! If they do one time in three years, so be it. Sigh!!!
they still want to keep the prius on life support shove an hybrid gas car lol
I don’t get it? I’m looking for my 1st EV and it is not inspiring me. Not that I will be driving 1000km
JUST LEASED CANADIAN BZ4X 2023, I ONLY GET 52KW ON 100KW CHARGER. IS THIS NOT FALSE ADVERTISING ? I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED SO FAR. I'M THINKING SERIOUSLY ABOUT RETURNING THIS VEHICLE.
HOW MANY PERCENT BATTERY DID YOU START CHARGING WITH? THAT IS IMPORTANT. YOUR BATTERY WAS PROBABLY TOO COLD AND THAT WHY IT CHARGED SO SLOW. TRY ARRIVING WITH LESS THAN 10 % NEXT TIME. THANK ME LATER.
@@bjornnyland THANKYOU FOR THE QUICK RESPONSE. I ARRIVED WITH 13 PERCENT CHARGE. I WILL TRY WITH 9 PERCENT NEXT TIME.
HELLO SIR, I ARRIVED AT THE 100KW CHARGER, WITH 6 PERCENT BATTERY, AND IT CHARGED TO 70 PERCENT IN 45 MINUTES. THE TOP ENERGY INPUT WAS 65.2 KW. THAT IS STILL NOT AS GOOD AS I HAD HOPED.
Toyota is new Nokia no doubt
So 5 minutes faster than my 5 year old Ioniq 28 kWh.. What a crap car, I assumed some improvement had taken place in 5 years
09:00 what a fail, really, what an epic fail. I don't know how the hell they can put on the market such a crappy car...
Because most people don't care
Bjorn you are hacking the car with OBD2 scanner the normal user doesn't use. I think you should drive car as a normal user. If the company is not exposing info about the battery temperature or the "penalty points", you should not have used that info. You should also use only the car's infotainment for finding chargers. This is the only way to expose how usable those cars really are. As a power user and using your own route calculations, you are showing cars in the unrealistic light of usability.
back to the drawing board for Toyota
It's a ridiculous limitation. Someone who does 2 x 1000km trips per year with 6 full cycles at 140kW charges, is a lot less load over a year on a battery that is charged a 140kW once every day. Let people use the car how they need to FFS.
This car needs at least 90kWh nett battery capacity
It is a bit bad that in 2023, the Toyota EV is slower than a 2013 Performance Tesla (not even the long range one) in 1000 Km challenge.
Bjorn's dedication is inspiring 👑👏
Toyota shame on you!🤬
Same time as an ioniq 28 🫣
*Ioniq
@@bjornnyland correction done boss..
Toyota was in the lead with Prius for decades, but didn't develop the tech. Now they are behind in full BEV tech. I hope this car is forcing them to learn quick lessons before 2025. After that, no time for learning lessons, those behind will be eaten alive by China EVs