Toyota and BYD will build an electric sedan in China with about the same size as a Corolla. BYD’s Blade Battery should make it robust – as Toyota is proud to make its cars – and price-competitive. We thought we would only see this car at the next Beijing Auto Show in April 2022, but Toyota may have just revealed it.
While announcing its plans to go electric, the Japanese carmaker revealed 15 concepts, and only one has a Toyota badge and a sedan shape. It is called bZ SDN. Lexus may also get its version with the concept car it named simply as Lexus Electrified Sedan. While “electrified” may imply it uses a plug-in hybrid or even only a hybrid powertrain, that does not seem to be the case with this Lexus. The luxury brand also named its version of Toyota’s bZ Large SUV simply as Lexus Electrified SUV and we are sure it will be purely electric. Back to the sedans, the Toyota bZ SDN did not deserve much attention from Akio Toyoda in his presentation of the concept cars. The Toyota CEO only said it is a “mid-size sedan that meets customers’ expectations for a first car.” We have the impression that there must have been a mistake in translation or that Toyoda referred to what Japan may consider a mid-size sedan. In many markets, what Americans consider compact (C-segment vehicles) is referred to as mid-size. According to the European classification, the Toyota Corolla belongs to the C-segment. In China, it would fit in the B-segment, as Bridget McCarthy kindly shared with us when discussing the new BYD e-platform 3.0. Summing it up, the Corolla fits the description of an exemplary first car In the world’s major car markets, both in terms of size and affordability. An electric version of such a car with LFP batteries would do that as well. A mid-size sedan in the American classification would be a Camry, a much larger vehicle. Another curious element that reinforces that thesis is that the bZ SDN has the same rear-view mirrors as the bZ4X, the bZ Compact SUV, and the bZ Small Crossover. That is a clear sign that these four vehicles are intended for production and that it will not take a long time to happen.
Next April, Toyota may present a different vehicle at the 2022 Beijing Auto Show. However, there’s a solid chance it will be the bZ SDN. It won’t take long for us to confirm that.
Keyword: This Is Probably the Electric Corolla Toyota Will Build With BYD