CONFIRMED: Toyota bZ4X is coming to Malaysia in 2023

The Toyota bZ4X EV SUV has already been launched in our neighbouring countries, but it'll soon land in Malaysia come 2023.

UMW Toyota Motor announced that they are indeed preparing for its first fully-electrified model for the local market. In fact, a few units have already arrived for testing and training purposes.

Price range unsure

Looking at the Toyota bZ4X offerings in Thailand and Indonesia, we can see that the two different variants are offered at drastically different prices. The one in Thailand is priced at 1,836,000 baht (around RM235,000) while Indonesians can get one for 1.19 billion rupiah (around RM355,000).

Thailand's EV incentives provided by its government helped to greatly reduce the bZ4X's selling price, and the spec they received is the dual-electric motor with AWD that produces 215hp and 337Nm of torque.

Indonesia's much higher price tag will only get them the FWD single-electric motor unit that churns out 204hp and 266Nm of torque. Both are fitted with the same 71.4kWh lithium-ion battery pack which get the Thai unit a WLTP range of 411km but a much longer range for the Indonesia variant at 500km (WLTP).

Malaysia's EV exemptions ongoing until 2024

The tax exemptions for fully-imported EVs in relation to the import and excise duties will last until the end of 2024. Depending on the variant that we will get come 2023, our best-educated guess in terms of the price range for the Malaysian market might just be between RM230,000 to RM260,000.

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. An interesting EV prospect?