2024 Toyota bZ4X: Toyota Upgrades Everything But the Name

Thanks to an update for the 2024 model year, Toyota’s sometimes overlooked bZ4X EV receives a raft of new features focused on convenience and charging capability.

Leading the list of upgrades is a dual–voltage charging cable capable of both 120-volt Level 1 and 240-volt Level 2 charging that comes standard for both the XLE and Limited grades. 

The bZ4X’s 7.6-kW onboard charger allows it to charge from low battery light to a full charge in about 9.5 hours with a Level 2 charger at 240V, adding about 20 miles of driving range per hour of charge.

Toyota is touting the availability of a ChargePoint Home Flex Level 2 home charger from Toyota dealers or directly from ChargePoint online. An advantage of the Home Flex is its 23-foot cable, which can make it easier to reach the car’s charging port.

The included charging cable is now capable of both 120-volt Level 1 and 240-V Level 2 charging. TOYOTA

But that device’s 9.6-kW charging speed can’t be exploited by the bZ4X’s 7.6-kW onboard charger, so there would be no charging speed advantage to using that instead of connecting the included portable charging cable to a 240-volt outlet. Obviously, if the portable charger is connected to a regular 120-volt outlet, charging will be much slower.

The new bZ4X is equipped with an SAE J1772/Combined Charge System connector for Level 3 DC fast charging. While Toyota has committed to deploying Telsa’s North American Charging Standard plugs on its EVs beginning in 2025 to provide access to Tesla’s Supercharger network of DC fast chargers, the 2024 bZ4X is too early to enjoy that update.

2024 bZ4X buyers do get one year of free charging on the EVgo public charging network, which is attractive, though the EVgo network is much smaller than Tesla’s and surveys show it, like all other alternative networks, is less reliable than the Supercharger network.

For 2024, the bZ4X shows the state-of-charge percentage, the estimated time to reach 80 percent state of charge, and the estimated vehicle range are displayed on the car’s Multi-Information Display. 

The bZ4X's Multi-Information Display now shows important charging information. TOYOTA

Toyota’s engineers have bolstered the car’s cold-weather DC fast-charging capability with upgrades to the bZ4X’s battery thermal system, such as the addition of a water-to-water heat exchanger and heating adjustment valve to increase battery temperature. A warmer battery charges faster in cold temperatures. 

Other cold-weather mitigation features include:

The bZ4X's electric drivetrain is unchanged for 2024. TOYOTA

Arriving in dealers this month, the 2024 Toyota bZ4X’s base price is $43,070 for the XLE grade and $47,180 for the Limited grade.