Toyota has unveiled the first of 15 new electric vehicles it plans to sell by 2025
- Toyota unveiled its new electric SUV at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show.
- The car is similar to a RAV4 in design, but rides lower and has a yoke steering wheel.
- The new EV is one of 15 the company plans to make by 2025.
Toyota debuted its new all-electric SUV concept car on Monday at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show.
The Toyota bZ4X is the first electric car under the company's new Beyond Zero (bZ) lineup of cars with zero carbon emissions. It is the first of 15 fully electric cars the company plans to make by 2025 and one of seven under the bZ badge, according to a statement from CTO Masahiko Maeda.
The car is a compact SUV that looks similar to Toyota's RAV4, but rides lower to the ground and features a longer wheelbase.
It's the first car to be built on Toyota's new electric e-TNGA BEV platform that the company created jointly with Subaru. Subaru is expected to unveil its own electric car on the platform shortly.
The new car has several distinctive features, including a system that can use solar power to alleviate the impact of cold weather on the vehicle's range, as well as yoke instead of a typical steering wheel. The car's interior also has a large touchscreen.
The car company plans to manufacture the car in Japan and China. It should be available globally by the middle of 2022, according to the company.
Toyota has not announced how far the car will be able to travel on a full charge, but it will likely be competitive with other EVs on the market, including the Ford Mustang Mach-E which has a range of over 300 miles.
Toyota also did not attach a price estimate to the car, but CarandDriver.com reported the vehicle may sell for about $40,000 - a similar price to Toyota's RAV4 hybrid.