• by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, June 2, 2025

Toyota Motor North America is getting ready to launch a new bZ electric compact SUV.

The company is dropping 4X from the end of bZ to simplify it and in part because “that’s what people were calling it anyway,” says Mike Tripp, Toyota Motor North American, group vice president, Toyota division marketing.

The updated model incorporates subtle refinements to the front fascia and lighting elements, with slim LED daytime running lights that integrate into a sleek hammerhead front end. Redesigned front overfenders also change the look, with a newly available color-matched molding that blends into a lower profile front fascia.

Inside, the console layout is now optimized, with two front wireless chargers and a new, slimmed-down dashboard with a larger 14-inch Toyota Audio Multimedia touchscreen.

The 2026 bZ will be equipped with a North American Charging System (NACS) charging port, giving it access to thousands of high-speed charging stations nationwide. Under ideal conditions when using DC fast charging it is capable of charging from 10% to-80% battery capacity in around 30 minutes, according to Toyota.

The 2026 Toyota bZ is expected to start arriving at Toyota dealerships in the second half of 2025. Pricing will be announced closer to on-sale date.

The automaker is planning a campaign highlighting its family of Battery Electric Vehicles in the fall, including the new bZ, bZ Woodland edition and the C-HR.

“What I'm the most excited about is these vehicles all have the product power that was missing a little bit with the original bZ — 50% more horsepower, 25% more range and 20% quicker charging,” Tripp tells Drive Time. 

Final storyboards are still being tweaked, but the premise is “skeptics turn electric,” he says.

“Because there's been people not only skeptical, but skeptical of Toyota, we think there's something there that we can have some fun with,” he says. 

Toyota has been a little more tentative about the EV market, bit it turns out to have been the right approach, he says. 

“We were criticized about our multi-path approach, and now, fast-forward, it looks like it was a pretty good approach,” Tripp says. “I love to be at a company where everybody zigs and we tend to zag. And so we've been slow to get into the EV with both feet simply because the market wasn't there. But now we see the market growth and as a result, we're not happy with being the 10th or 12th brand in EV sales when we're the number one in retail sales everywhere else. So rest assured, we're going to continue to expand because that's a part of the market where we don't have the same share and the same dominance that we want to have.”

Toyota will continue to look at EVs and expand in the segments that make sense. 

“And I think when it comes to dialing up or dialing down the volume, certainly we'll do that because of some of the EV mandates, but it won't change our strategy,” Tripp says. "It doesn't mean we're going to not go into a segment we're planning to go into. And we think there's some segments that we haven't shown you yet that we need to get into in the EV space. We will, and they will be additions to the fleet -- not replacement of the great hybrids and internal combustion engine and plug-in hybrid vehicles we have.”