PT Toyota Astra Motor (TAM) officially offers the bZ4X electric vehicle in Indonesia, Thursday (11/10/2022). This SUV product with a crossover design is Toyota's answer in the rising electric car market in the country.
This battery electric vehicle (BEV) product was first introduced in 2021 at the Shanghai Auto Show. In April this year, it was offered to the European and Japanese markets, then thanks to the G20 Summit, Indonesians were able to enjoy this month's bZ4X. The most interesting, of course, is the price tag offered by Toyota for consumers who want to experience the bZ4X technology, which is IDR 1.19 billion on the road in DKI Jakarta.
About this price does make a question. The reason is, the bZ4X will fight directly with European brands such as the BMW i4 at Rp. 2.06 billion, the BMW iX at Rp. 2.33 billion, the Mini Electric at Rp. 1.05 billion and the Lexus UX 300e at a price of Rp. 1.4 billion. Some rivals who are predicted to go head to head are in the range of Rp. 700 million to Rp. 800 million, such as the Ioniq 5, Nissan Leaf, Kona and Ioniq EV and the official price for Wuling Air ev is Rp. 200 million to Rp. 300 million.
“Today, Toyota Indonesia is proud to launch the first pure electric car in Indonesia, the Toyota bZ4X. Hopefully, with the complete line-up of Toyota's electrification, the Indonesian people will have more choices for environmentally friendly vehicles (zero emission)," said Henry Tanoto, Vice President of PT TAM in his speech.
The bZ model is a brand that Toyota has prepared to present pure electric vehicle models, aka battery electric vehicles (BEV). The bZ nomenclature itself refers to “beyond zero”, Toyota's answer to green mobility through products and services focused on driving pleasure, driving safety and building a better environment around the world. The bZ4X product itself is a human-centric product, designed to bridge the shift to BEV through the design, performance and ownership of pure electric vehicles to exceed consumer expectations.
The presence of the bZ4X is also an achievement in itself for Toyota, which has introduced a strategy to achieve net zero emissions which started 20 years ago by introducing the Prius, Toyota's first hybrid model. To date, Toyota has sold more than 17 million electrified vehicles, saving 140 million tons of CO2 production. Toyota also continues to offer a multipath approach through HEV, PHEV, FCEV and BEV products worldwide.
The performance offering comes from a front-driven AC sychronous motor that produces 150 kW or around 201 hp and 266 Nm of torque. The battery uses lithium ion with a voltage of 355 v and a capacity of 71.4 kWh which can cover a distance of 500 kilometers. Toyota claims that this electric motor can accelerate the bZ4X from rest to 100 km per hour in 8.3 seconds.
The charging problem uses a CCS2 type socket. Charging with AC current has an output value of 6.6 kW and DC alias fast charging has an output value of 150 kW. This fast charging takes 30 minutes to charge the battery from 0 to 80 percent.
Toyota also provides portable charging and wall charging which will be provided as a package for every bZ4X purchase. About the size of the minimum charging power of 3,500 watts for portable and 7,700 watts for wall charging. Toyota has collaborated with PLN to install this wall charging facility in consumers' homes.
This modern Toyota product comes with Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) 3.0 security technology. This feature consists of a blind spot monitor, safe exit assist, clearence sonar, rear cross traffic alert, rear camera detection, parking support brake, pre collision system, lane tracing assist, dynamic radar cruise control, automatic high beam, rear camera detection, rear cross traffic alerts, as well as advanced parking features. This model is also equipped with T-intouch, a vehicle telematics feature that is connected via the user's mobile phone.
Toyota's first electric vehicle after-sales service comes with an 8-year or 160,000-kilometer battery warranty. In addition, bZ4X is also offered through the Kinto rental ownership program. Consumers can pay with funds of IDR 20 million per month.
