RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesThe Toyota bZ makes the transition from gas-powered cars to EVs a breeze. Its quirky styling and constant jangles hold it back. Ben Shimkus/Business Insider
The 2026 Toyota bZ rides like an all-electric RAV4 — with some funky design choices.
I drove the bZ, Toyota's most affordable EV, for a week.
The bZ is a great family car that really, really cares about your coffee intake and posture.
Toyota's refreshed, midsize EV — the 2026 bZ — looks nothing like other Toyotas.
Its backside is sharply sloped and angular, giving it a profile that resembles a doorstop. It might win a Pontiac Aztek lookalike contest.
Step inside, and even the dashboard has some funky angles, including a gauge cluster that sits unusually far back from the steering wheel.
The 2026 Toyota bZ is a very family-friendly SUV with some quirky design choices. Ben Shimkus/Business Insider
Once you get past the initial "Wait, that's a Toyota? " feeling about the design, the SUV quickly starts to feel like an all-electric version of Toyota's massively popular gas-hybrid RAV4 .
That's a huge compliment.
I spent a week and about 300 miles with a front-wheel-drive bZ XLE Plus, which starts at $37,900 and has an EPA-estimated range of 314 miles. My tester cost $40,468 with premium silver paint and a few accessories.
A Toyota EV in America's favorite packaging
Toyota gave the SUV a big facelift for 2026. Even the name is new. Ben Shimkus/Business Insider
For several years, the best-selling vehicle segment in the US has been the midsize SUV.
The RAV4, Honda's CR-V, Tesla's Model Y, and Chevy's Equinox all cracked the top 10 in US vehicle sales last year. Combined, they sold more than 1.4 million units in 2025.
The bZ won me over because it acts a lot like those popular cars — and sprinkles in the best EV traits.
Highway acceleration is quick, especially compared with gas-powered rivals. The bZ also feels well-balanced through a bend, with the battery's weight spread low across the floor. Road noise was virtually nonexistent, even at highway speeds.
I've driven a lot of EVs in my career — everything from the Lucid Gravity to the Fiat 500E to the Polestar 4. Passengers have frequently felt nauseated after long trips in some of them.
Not in the bZ.
Adults in the back seat said they didn't feel any queasiness and praised how comfortable it remained over rough New York City roads.
Backseat passengers felt perfectly comfortable in the bZ. Ben Shimkus/Business Insider
There was plenty of room for their luggage, too.
Behind the wheel, the bZ was also impressively efficient. I averaged about 4.1 miles per kilowatt-hour with the air conditioning running in summer heat.
Ding! Bing! Hey! Sit up!
The bZ likes to nag. Ben Shimkus
The bZ's biggest annoyance was its cacophony of bings.
Its driver-attention monitor — which mounts sensors into the steering wheel to track where the driver is looking — repeatedly chimed to tell me I wasn't paying attention.
I get that writing that sentence sounds like I'm outing myself as a distracted driver. But I'm not.
"Driver inattention detected," it said as I looked over my left shoulder before merging onto a busy highway. "Look forward," the system warned as I sipped a coffee. "Sit up," it blared as I grabbed the top of the steering wheel in a way that blocked its view of my eyes.
By the end of the week, my passengers were laughing about how often the car pinged, even when it was obvious I was paying attention.
The car also makes a separate ping when it's shifted into reverse. Even people on the other end of a Bluetooth phone call could hear it.
Toyota's S-Flow climate system was another oddity. It's designed to send air only toward occupied seats, but it didn't consistently recognize people sitting in the second row.
For a car so intent on watching me, it occasionally missed everyone else.
I just wish it would trust me to drink my coffee — and cool off the passengers in the back seat.
Toyota joins the EV party in a big way
Toyota's existing EVs, like the Lexus RZ above, got some huge updates. They're joined by a new list of EV entrants. Ben Shimkus/Business Insider
For years, critics kvetched about Toyota's uninspiring EV lineup.
From 2021 to 2025, the world's largest automaker had offered just two EVs in the US: the Toyota bZ4X and Lexus RZ. Both shared a platform, funky styling, middling charging speeds, and ranges that didn't reach 300 miles.
Now, as many automakers are pulling back their electric ambitions , Toyota is doing the opposite.
For 2026, Toyota refreshed and renamed its midsize SUV to the bZ and upgraded the battery. Sales are up 89% this year.
The car company also added the bZ Woodland wagon and the C-HR subcompact SUV. Next year, the Highlander goes fully electric .
The company's luxury brand, Lexus, is also adding to its EV stable. The old RZ got some cosmetic and range updates for 2026 (its sales are also up 106.8%), and was joined by the ES electric sedan. A three-row TZ SUV is scheduled for 2027.
That will give Toyota's brands seven consumer EV options — four more than Tesla.
"When we look at the brands that people want to buy EVs from, Toyota and Honda are No. 1 and No. 2," K.C. Boyce, vice president of automotive and energy research at Escalent, told Business Insider. "Toyota is full steam ahead."
The timing for Toyota's expanding lineup is striking. Honda is retreating from EVs and doesn't have an all-electric option in 2027.
Critics have long charged Toyota with being an EV laggard. That argument is a lot harder to make now.
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