Is the 2025 Toyota bZ4X electric SUV a sales flop? We ask Toyota how badly its Tesla Model Y EV rival is fairing in Australia

Toyota launched the bZ4X in February this year. Just 771 units of Toyota’s long-awaited and much-anticipated first foray into EVs in Australia have been registered to the end of September.

This accounts for less than half of one per cent of total Toyota volume, which is set to smash sales records in 2024 on the back of rocketing hybrid demand across most models.

In contrast, its key mid-sized SUV EV rival, the Tesla Model Y, is currently sitting at 16,697 sales – or about 2100 per cent ahead of the bZ4X. And this is all in spite of cheaper bZ4X entry pricing than anticipated.

Furthermore, we are hearing rumours that TMCA staff are encouraged to lease the EV in order to get rid of stock, while anecdotally, small government agencies seem to be common purchasers of what is an expensive car.

However, this is also a distorted picture, as other big-name carmakers’ EVs in similar SUV size classes as the Toyota are selling nearly or just as poorly over the same time frame.

These include the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (707 units), Ford Mustang Mach-E (544 units), Volvo C40 (450 units), Mercedes-Benz’s EQA/EQB duo (829/273 units) and the bZ4X’s near-identical Subaru Solterra twin (352 units).

Only the Kia EV6 seems to be bucking that trend at or near the bZ4X's circa-$70,000 to $90,000 price point – jumping nearly 30 per cent with 1470 sales.

Model Y sales have inexplicably plummeted by about 30 per cent of their 2023 levels so far this year, as part of a circa-20 per cent tumble for Tesla outright. This is far worse than the total EV sales decline in 2024, which is only down about five per cent after several double-digit years of growth.

Toyota Australia Vice President of Sales, Market and Franchise Operations, Sean Hanley, denies that the bZ4X is not performing to expectations.

“Yes, it is”, he told CarsGuide. “It is. The bZ4X was never about launching to be number one (in EV sales)."

“The bZ4X was about launching our first battery electric vehicle into the Australian market,” he said.

Hanley added that he’d like the bZ4X to perform better than it has.

“Now, of course, we want to sell them,” he said. “Of course we do, but it's never about volume. It was about understanding the market. It was about trying to structure programs of ways to purchase it, whether it be finance, full service lease, whatever, whatever, and to be able to educate our dealers so they can give confidence to the market about Toyota EVs.

“That's what bZ4X is about, and it's doing that.”

Hanley allayed fears that Toyota in Australia might retreat from EVs altogether, though declined to go into detail what they may be and when we may see them.

“As that EV market grows, we (will) launch more EVs,” he said. “As we did with hybrid, and that first Toyota hybrid (the original Prius) back in October, 2001 (where) we started the journey.

“I don't think it'll take 23 years, by the way… I think it's going to accelerate a hell of a lot quicker than that.

“But to add, as we position from our knowledge of those years, to be able to position ourselves as a confident, trusted BEV supplier.”

As widely reported over the past two years, Hanley has prioritised making hybrids available in Australia over any EV options, believing that the market is not yet mature enough to warrant more.

This strategy seems to be reaping rewards. With total sales up 20 per cent year-on-year, Toyota is riding on a hybrid high in Australia.

Star performers include RAV4 and Camry (up nearly 100 per cent apiece), Yaris Cross (up 42%), Corolla (up 33%) Corolla Cross and Yaris (both up 26%).

As such, Hanley is characteristically unphased by media reports that Toyota has dropped the ball on electrification by focusing on hybrids.

“To all those people that criticised us and said we were yesterday's heroes, that we'd be (going the way of the dodo like) Nokia and Kodak and Blockbuster or whoever else they referred to us (as following in the steps of), which is unfair on those companies, there’s an old saying,” he said.

“‘As the skunk said when the wind changed, it's all coming back to them now!’.”