Toyota bZ4X spotted at Toyota's HQ in Shah Alam - launching soon?

The Toyota bZ4X has been spotted at UMW Toyota's headquarters - launching sooner rather than later?

UMW Toyota Motor announced in December 2022 that they are indeed preparing for their first fully-electrified model for the local market. In fact, even back then, Toyota confirmed that a few units had already arrived for testing and training purposes.

Turns out, they weren't fibbing about the car being in the country as recently, the bZ4X was briefly displayed at UMW's headquarters in Shah Alam.

The Toyota bZ4X can be had in an FWD or AWD setup, and the ones being displayed at UMW Toyota's HQ was the FWD version, just like the one that was introduced in Indonesia (Thailand debuted the AWD version).

But no matter which variant UMW decides to launch in Malaysia, both will still come with a 71.4kWh lithium-ion battery pack, which in the FWD will give the car 500km of range and 411km in the AWD version.

Charging-wise, both variants of the Toyota bZ4X EV SUV support up to 6.6kW of AC charging (Type 2 connection) and up to 150kW of DC fast charging (CCS2 connection). The latter offers a charging rate from 0-80% in just 30 minutes.

From what we can see, the two units displayed at UMW were kitted out with a set of 20-inch rims, a 7" digital instrument display, a 12.3" infotainment screen and leather upholstery. 

We'll know more about the Malaysian spec car once UMW decides to officially preview it, but for now, this is all we know about the preview cars.

Since the tax exemptions for fully-imported EVs in relation to the import and excise duties will last until the end of 2024, pricing-wise, depending on the variant we will get, our best-educated guess in terms of the price range for the Malaysian market might be between RM230,000 to RM260,000.

The FWD bZ4x was launched in Indonesia with a price of Rp. 1,190,000,000 (approx. RM356k).

Picture credit: Motoqar