Video: 2023 Toyota bZ4X: Up Close

You see Toyota and Subaru got together and created a brand new compact EV crossover. This is Toyota's version. This is the new 2023 bZ4X, and no, that is not the official catalog part number for the oil cap on an 82 Chevrolet El Camino. That is the vehicles name. BZ is the new Toyota sub brand called Beyond Zero, which also really doesn't make much sense because everything is beyond zero. Dodge Viper is beyond zero. Anyway, they look very similar because they are very similar, but there are some subtle differences that you can spot to tell the difference between this, the bZ4X and the new 2023 Subaru Solterra. What are those differences? Let's take you through some of them. Visually, there are a couple of differences between the Subaru Solterra and the Toyota bZ4X. Now yeah, the styling is very similar, but there are a couple of cues that will help you differentiate between the two. First of all, you got different headlights on the Toyota than you do on the Subaru but the biggest difference is the fact that there's no grill on the Toyota. The bZ4X has a smooth front, whereas the Solterra, even though the grill is fake, actually has a grill with a Subaru badge in the middle of it. Now down the sides, these painted gray metallic panels are just molded gray plastic on the Subaru. Here, they're actually painted and I think they look pretty good. But between that, only the headlights and the tail lights are really different and the tail lights on this one are also considerably different than they are on the Subaru. So if you look very closely, you can actually spot some differences between the two. The interior of the bZ4X is less differentiated than the exterior compared to the Subaru Solterra but that's really not a bad thing because it's really quite nice in here. But it is very similar right down to the dash fabric that looks good, but it looks pretty much the same as it does in the Subaru. Now, just like in the Subaru, there are two areas that really stick out at you the first time you sit down in this thing. The first is this instrument cluster. It's mounted so high in the dash that you actually look over the steering wheel instead of through it. That's pretty unusual, but it also means that it can also sort of double as its own heads up display. You don't need anything projected onto the windshield because it's pretty much right there. And the other thing is this 12.3 inch multimedia system. Now this is the Toyota proprietary system. It's brand new for the 22 and 23 model year. They're rolling it out across a number of different models. It's a cloud-based navigation app. You can set up a bunch of different profiles and it really does work quite well. It also includes a lot of sensitive haptic touch switches for the climate control system. Now we're not a huge fan of that, but it does balance it with the fact that there are some actual dedicated buttons for controlling things like parking brake and you do actually have a nice knob here for controlling the actual shifter, the transmission itself. There isn't a transmission, but, you know, drive, neutral, reverse, et cetera. There's also plenty of room in here, more than you might expect. This thing is about the size of a RAV4. A little bit bigger than a RAV4, a little bit smaller than a Toyota Venza, but that means that there's plenty of room, both upfront and in back. There's more leg room than you might imagine and there's also plenty of headroom, even despite the fact that this thing has a panoramic moon roof. So you're actually really quite comfortable in here. The view out is expansive. This should really do quite well in city environments. Now we don't have official pricing yet for the new 23 bZ4X. That's gonna be coming a little bit later on, closer to the vehicles on sale date in early 2022. We expect it's going to start somewhere in the mid to high $30,000 range, but probably come in just a little bit less in terms of starting price than the Subaru Solterra because it doesn't feature that car's standard all wheel drive. Now there's a lot to like in this new Toyota bZ4X, and we haven't gotten to drive it yet, but we will soon and as soon as we do, you're gonna see it on cars.com.