2023 Toyota bZ4X Has Changed the EV Charging Game With These New Features
Twenty years ago, the thought of your home garage being your gas station for your car was an absurd idea. Today, every neighborhood has at least a few garages with an EV sitting in them. While charging your car today isn’t really a new thing, Toyota has found a way to revolutionize how we charge our EVs with these new features found on the 2023 Toyota bZ4X.
The first main charging feature is this cool option Toyota has added which they call Remote Connect. It is basically an app on your phone which tells you what percent your 2023 bZ4X is at and how much is left to charge. According to Toyota, you can even start or stop charging your car if it is plugged in. One cool feature that will also improve battery life is having a charging schedule.
Let's say you plug in your bZ4X before you go to bed. However, we all know that keeping things that run on a lithium-ion battery charged for too long is not good for the battery’s life. Toyota solved this by adding a charging schedule feature to your car so that you can tell the app that you want charging to start at 3 in the morning and stop when 100%.
This feature is useful because maybe some people don’t feel safe leaving a huge battery charging overnight or maybe you know that your battery’s life will decrease if you leave the charge flowing for too long. Just like how you can program your coffee machine, you can now program your 2023 Toyota bZ4X to charge whenever you want.
The app also provides easy access to charging stations within your area. Just like how you can Google where charging stations are near you, the Remote Connect app will give you faster and closer results so you won’t have to Google nearby charging stations.
With your purchase of a 2023 Toyota bZ4X, you will also receive a ChargePoint Home Flex level 2 charger from the dealer. This home charger is installed either indoors or outdoors and acts as a fast charger for your bZ4X. The level 2 charger charges up to 25 miles per hour and comes with a 23-foot-long cable. The cost of the charger is added to the MSRP of the 2023 bZ4X if chosen by the buyer.
Perhaps one of the most complimentary and useful of these new options is going to be a free one year of charging at any EVgo-owned chargers with the purchase or lease of a 2023 Toyota bZ4X.
I think Toyota has really knocked it out of the park with these new charging features that will be available on the 2023 bZ4X. Hopefully, more automakers will also innovate their charging mechanisms and make them more streamlined.
What do you think? Do the charging features on the bZ4X sound good? Let us know in the comments section below.
Harutiun Hareyan is reporting Toyota news at Torque News. His automotive interests and vast experience test-riding new cars give his stories a sense of authenticity and unique insights. Follow Harutiun on Twitter at @HareyanHarutiun for daily Toyota news.