Toyota does hybrids incredibly well. They better—they’ve been at it for nearly 30 years, giving them a lot of time to perfect the technology. That’s why it’s more than a little surprising their first mainstream EV here, the bZ4X, missed the mark in a few key areas given their experience with electrons. Fortunately, this newly updated 2026 Toyota bZ rights many of those wrongs.
Want to feel old? The Prius is almost 30 years old. That’s a long time to dedicate to hybrids, and it shows: nearly everything today in Toyota’s lineup is a hybrid of some sort, and we really appreciate their latest pitch on making their hybrids actually kinda sorta fun to drive. But a lot can change in 30 years, not the least of which being the peaks and valleys in the popularity and adoption of EVs. Toyota has received a lot of flack here, namely for its slow adoption of EVs while remaining gung-ho on hybrids and PHEVs.
And in that time, it’s not like Toyota hasn’t dabbled with full EVs, or “BEVs” as Toyota likes to call them. Europe had a brief taste with the Lexus UX 300e, and long before that, Toyota dabbled with various flavours of electric RAV4s in California. So with all that out of the way, it was surprising to see the bZ4X left so much on the table. It didn’t have much power, it didn’t have much range, it was pricey, and it certainly looked the way it did. But with this incoming mid-cycle refresh for 2026, it’s as though the bZ4X took a year off, went backpacking through Europe, and found itself a new identity.
Literally. It’s now called the bZ—no more “4X” suffix crowding this bowl of alphabet soup. Along with the slightly cleaner-looking tailgate, the 2026 bZ also receives freshened styling inside and out. The bZ XLE we’re sampling here wears subtly changed front and rear fascias, new wheels, a slightly toned-down spoiler, and definitely toned-down body cladding.
Inside, the bZ feels familiar. Right away, you’ll recognize the almost comically small steering wheel and high-mount digital gauge cluster plucked right out of the new Prius. Next to it is a subtly revamped touchscreen and climate control layout; it may look very similar to the previous layout, but Toyota upsized the display to 14 inches in order to accommodate the new digital climate controls. It’s a similar setup to what you’d find in a Lexus; we’re not overly thrilled about the climate controls going almost-all-digital, but the two physical temperature dials, proper volume knob, and hard buttons for defrost ease the sting.
Further down, Toyota reworked the centre console to include two very large wireless charging pads, their new centre console cubby lid that opens from the driver and passenger side—and best of all, did away with almost all of the gloss black trim. Fit-and-finish feels solid, the overall layout is intuitive enough, there’s plenty of space regardless of where you sit, and the design doesn’t come across as needlessly futuristic for the sake of being needlessly futuristic. If we had to nitpick, Toyota’s material choices probably won’t blow you away as they would in, say, a Crown Signia, and the bZ still lacks a proper glove box. But by and large, these little updates go a long way to improve day-to-day livability. Did we mention there’s less gloss black trim?!
Toyota has shuffled a few things with the bZ’s powertrain, too. The base, front-wheel-drive bZ XLE uses a 57.7 kWh battery pack and a 168-horsepower electric motor up front. Range is estimated at 378 kilometres—lowest of the bZ lineup, but still an improvement over last year’s bZ4X. Still, considering it packs the least amount of horsepower and range, the front-wheel-drive bZ probably isn’t the one you want.
Toyota piques our interest with this mid-range XLE AWD model. It gains an additional electric motor out back and a larger 77 kWh battery pack. Power gets a nice bump to 338 hp, and this combination is good for a generous 460 kilometres of range. Toyota is even bold enough to declare this powertrain combo is good for a zero-to-100 km/h run in 5.1 seconds. The range-topping bZ Limited uses the same powertrain, but the bigger wheels on that trim reduces range to a still-very-good 430 km.
To Toyota’s credit, all this addresses a lot of the shortcomings of the bZ4X. Before, the best you could do was 214 horsepower and 367 kilometres of range, tops. Now, these powertrain improvements not only put a serious spring in the bZ’s step, and the extra 100 kilometres of range sweetens the deal nicely. The all-wheel-drive bZ certainly feels as quick as Toyota suggests, but it doesn’t lose sight of delivering a comfy and well-mannered ride otherwise. Another key update for 2026 is how you recharge the battery. Toyota switched out the CCS charge port for a Tesla-style NACS connector. This means you can now charge up at a Tesla Supercharger, where Toyota claims you can expect a 10-to-80 per cent charge in about half an hour. That’s the same as before, but road trip should be less nerve-wracking given that Tesla’s Superchargers are pretty much everywhere.
All of this is to say, Toyota is on the right track righting the bZ4X’s wrongs. The kicker will be pricing; if Toyota manages to keep the 2026 Toyota bZ under $60,000, these updates are worth every penny. Expect to see them in dealers across the country, instead of just B.C. and Quebec as before, later this year.
