The useable battery in my bz4x is 64 kwh.

Why did Toyota not make the entire 73.8kwh battery available? It seems strange to leave off 10kwh considering how expensive batteries are. I feel if bz4x had 10-15% more range skeptics would have been satisfied, esp in winter.

Isn't Toyota the only manufacturer other than Tesla to have a heat pump, why are we getting poor performance in cold temperatures? I feel its more of a 30-40% drop but I am in Chicago.

 

Why did Toyota not make the entire 73.8kwh battery available? It seems strange to leave off 10kwh considering how expensive batteries are. I feel if bz4x had 10-15% more range skeptics would have been satisfied, esp in winter.

Isn't Toyota the only manufacturer other than Tesla to have a heat pump, why are we getting poor performance in cold temperatures? I feel its more of a 30-40% drop but I am in Chicago.

All manufacturers leave some amount of the battery as unusable as a buffer. Draining a battery completely and filling it completely is not good for the life of the battery. Toyota seems to have left a bigger buffer than most to ensure battery longevity.

Regarding the heat pump, I would say about 1/2 of EVs have a heat pump. I know the Ioniq 5 does, and I think VW just added one to the ID.4. Toyota made an update to the 2024 bz4x to help winter charging speeds, but I'm not sure about winter range.

 

@jake14mw I also had a question about charging costs. It seems as most auto reporters say 1/3 to 1/4th the cost of gas. I was getting 12mpg on my vehicles which added to $400+/mo. I am noticing that I am charging an average of 11kw/day at home and my comed rate is $0.06/kwh, would total $0.66/day, $19.8/mo. I can go even less by going to hourly pricing. Am I doing my math wrong as its an order 20x difference not 3x? Is it because I had thirsty V8s that I am coming from?

 

Things vary too much from car to car and state to state for general comparisons like that. Firstly, you can't compare a bz4X to V8s. The gas equivalent is a RAV4. A RAV 4 gets about 30 mpg. The bz4x averages about 3.2 mi/kwh? Gas here in CT costs about $3.50/gallon right now. That's about 12 cents/mile to drive the RAV4. Here in CT, electricity is crazy expensive at 22 cents/kwh, so that's about 7 cents/mile to drive the bz4x. So here, the bz4x is not even half as expensive to drive.

 

Most ICE vehicles being compared to, mileage-wise, get better (higher) fuel economy. But even then, the comparison can vary widely, depending on what your particular kWh cost is…

And, I’m pretty sure every battery installed in any EV has some amount of buffer reserved, if for no other reason, to charge safely. No one wants to pack a battery pack to a full, complete 100%.

No current EV has the same kWh efficiency in cold weather as in warm weather. That’s just physics and the characteristics of battery power storage. And again, your battery “differential” between cold and warm seasons is highly dependent on the vehicle’s environment. The same vehicle driven during the winter in Fairbanks, AK is going to see substantially different results that it will see being driven in Orlando, FL.

 

Thank you or the tips Jake. As a first time EV owner these are good to know. Sounds like common sense, but still it's a good reminder, thank you.

 

This is a great post! I'm new to EV ownership and learned a lot prior to leasing the car and now having it for 2.5 weeks. Although I've been following EV's in general for many years now, but still learning a lot like the reversal of where EV's are most efficient fwy vs. city. so thank you!

The first thing I understood really quick that EV's are just like regular cars in the sense that your driving style influences your consumption: Just like you don't get the epa mpg for fwy/city that's on the Monroney Sticker on a regular car, unless you drive veery mildly under perfect circumstances. You wont get your max range on your EV when you are constantly taking advantage of that great and fun acceleration and driving high speeds on the fwy.

The second thing was that chargers won't always provide the max that charger says it can and what the car is programmed to take (AFAIK on my 2024 Limited AWD that's 100kw and Toyota did this to be able to provide a 10year warranty on their battery whereas most EV makers offer 8) even if you are on a 350kw fast chargers (I got around 60kw at one time and around 80kw at another time. On 50kw and 100kw chargers I got in the mid 40's and just slightly above 50kw respectively). So it depends on what the chargers is throwing out at any given time AND what you cars limits are.

The third thing is that it's just a different deal owning an EV and that there is going to be just a lot more regular charging involved. The general recommendation is to not charge above 80% or let it deplete below 20%, if you want the battery to last as long as possible and prevent premature degradation. That's on a regular basis. Of course you can do either every now and then, but as mentioned in the OP it also gets veeery slow above 80%.
Or all the time if you don't care about battery degradation (which I could, considering that it's a lease, but that is not how I'm wired and doesn't agree with my environmental consciousness).
So on a regular basis I have 60% battery to work with between charges. I was worried about fast charging in general, but the President of the dealership (who owned a bZ4X himself) assured me that I can absolutely fast charge once or twice a week without any hesitation.
Everybody has to decide for themselves if that works for their lifestyle, commute and circumstances. For me it's great, I have an EVgo station 5 minutes from my work, so I just bring a book and chill twice a week.

In general I think the game changer for EV ownership is having a Level 2 charger at home, charge regularly in a battery saving manner without any time commitment necessary (unless you forget plugging in over night). Something I'll be working on during this first year of taking advantage of the free charging.

 

I noticed that most people in this forum are new to EVs. I compiled a list of things that I think would be helpful to new EV drivers with some general EV tips and some things specific to the bz4x. I'm new to the bz4X, but have been driving various EVs for 8 years. I hope it's helpful.

Range - The listed range miles on the dash is not the actual range you will get. It is just an estimate. The car is guessing what your range will be based on past driving that you have done. The useable battery in my bz4x is 64 kwh. Watch the miles/kwh that you are getting. Right now, on my 2024 AWD, I’m averaging 3.4 miles/kwh. That means my average range from full to empty is 218 miles (64 x 3.4). Watch your mi/kwh. Know what you get under different driving conditions!

Efficiency – Whereas gas cars are more efficient and get better MPG driving on the highway, EVs are the opposite. EVs get better miles/kwh in slower driving. Driving at high speeds on the highway is a range killer. There is a huge efficiency difference driving at 65mph vs. 80mph.

Regenerative Braking – When you take your foot off the accelerator or press the brake pedal, the car will use regenerative braking to slow the car down and charge the battery. If the battery is full or near full, there is no place for that energy to go, so the car will not use regen braking. When you press the brake pedal, the car tries to use as much regen as it can, but in hard braking, the friction brakes are also applied. This is called blended braking. Most automakers use blended braking with EVs. Tesla does not (not sure if this has changed in any of their newer models).

Regen Boost Button – Pressing this button in the bz4x increases the amount of regen braking that occurs when you take your foot off of the accelerator. Using this allows you to use the brake pedal much less. Most new EV drivers don’t like the feeling of it. It takes a bit of time to get used to it and adjust your driving style to make it comfortable. Personally, the only time I use it is in stop and go traffic so that I don’t have to move my foot constantly back and forth. Some people refer to this as One Pedal Driving, but in the bz4x, you need to apply the brake to come to a complete stop. Some other automakers have a true one pedal driving mode where the car will come to a complete stop without hitting the brake. Since pressing the brake pedal also does regen, using regen boost in the bz4x will not necessarily give you more range. If you’re not careful and have the car use too much regen and then have to accelerate more, it can actually be less efficient.

Public Charging Etiquette – The public charging infrastructure is poor, so EV drivers need to help each other! 1) Don’t occupy an EV charging space if you are not charging! Once your car is done charging, move it so others can charge. 2) At DC fast chargers, try not to charge past 80%. This is a general EV charging rule, as the rate of charge of most EVs starts to slow greatly after 80%. It is much worse in the bz4x. The charging rate slows to a glacially slow pace. It is a waste of your time and other drivers time if they are waiting for you. 3) The fastest rate that the bz4x can charge at is 150kw. Many other EVs can charge at higher rates. If you pull into a DC fast charging station and there are 350kw and 150kw chargers, use the 150kw charger. A 350 will be no faster for you, but can be much faster for others.

Cold Weather - will reduce your range dramatically. This varies from car to car. I have seen range reductions in winter to be anywhere from 15-30% less. Using the heater uses a lot of electricity. The seat and steering wheel heaters use much less. A/C cooling in the summer is a range drain, but not nearly as much as heat in winter.

Tesla Superchargers – In the US, Tesla’s supercharger network is far superior to the CCS charging network that non-Tesla cars use. Other automakers recently came to agreements with Tesla to be allowed to use Tesla Superchargers with an adapter. This is huge. Ford and Rivian can use it currently. Others are being phased in. Don’t expect Toyotas to be able to use Tesla superchargers until 2025 though.

A very concise, informative post. You saved me $200+ on the purchase of an A2Z Typhoon adapter. Will wait for Toyota to get on the supercharger network and will use others in the meantime. 🤞🤞. I found your comment on estimating range particularly helpful.

 

Been watching my range as you recommended. About a 1000miles in: 3.4 m/kwh average as well!

 

 

1-Pedal driving = 1-Pedal acceleration, coasting, and braking

It doesn't matter what drive mode you prefer using to preserve momentum, the most efficient driving involves gradual acceleration and avoids braking (regen or otherwise)

If you've mastered this through 1-Pedal, cool. Personally, I find it easier to find neutral (coasting) without 1-Pedal but to each their own.

 

The BZ4X doesn’t have one pedal driving. It does have something like it, but it doesn’t come to a stop. I think this is a fault by Toyota and have no clue why Toyota would do this.

 

Rumor has it it's to force you to use your brakes and so keep them in good working order.

 

Thanks for the tips