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By Jonathan Crouch

Want a more interesting kind of Toyota bZ4X EV? Try this more SUV-like Touring version. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 30

The bZ4X Touring is a more interesting, outdoorsy kind of mid-sized Toyota EV crossover. Though this estate's design owes much to Subaru, it's delivered with typically Toyota attention to detail.

Backgroundword count: 141

Things are not always what they seem. Take the car were looking at here, Toyota's bZ4X Touring. On the face of things, it's just an estate version of the Japanese maker's rather unloved bZ4X mid-sized EV crossover. That's one way of looking at it. The other is to acknowledge that this is Toyota's version of a quite different car, the Subaru Trailseeker. If you've been following Toyota's rather tentative steps into the EV market, you'll know that the brand is rather keen on joint ventures. With Stellantis to create its electric vans. With Suzuki to create its Urban Cruiser small EV. And with Subaru to create the bZ4X. Subaru decided it needed to create an SUV-style estate version of the Solterra, it's bZ4X clone. The Trailseeker was the result. And Toyota has used the Trailseeker design to create this bZ4X Touring.

Engines and Tech Specword count: 200

In its top dual motor form, the bZ4X Touring is the most powerful EV Toyota has ever made, offering 376bhp and AWD. Traction is further augmented by Toyota Subaru co-developed X-MODE system, which will help in slippery conditions. The dual motor version has 'X-MODE' branded 'Snow/Dirt' or 'Deep Snow/Mud' drive settings that give this EV an unusual level of capability on the slippery stuff. There's also a single motor 221bhp version which has an improved range figure of 348 miles. Both variants use a slightly updated 74.7kWh version of the largest battery pack fitted to the ordinary bZ4X. But here it can facilitate a much higher braked towing capacity of 1,500kg (double that of the standard SUV). Whether you order your bZ4X Touring with front or four-wheel drive, you'd expect selectable brake regen settings, which can be operated by steering wheel paddleshifters and which include a 'Regeneration Boost' feature, which slows your off-throttle progress by up to 0.15g, in the process harvesting more energy to recharge the battery as you drive. This Toyota needs that, given that its mileage range figures are still hardly class-leading, but in terms of refinement and ride quality, it remains up with the class leaders.

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