To sell in China, the world’s largest auto market, it seems that even EV skeptics like Toyota have to produce “new energy vehicles,” whether they really want to or not.

The Toyota bZ3 5-seat electric sedan is the second model in the Japanese auto giant’s bZ series. Toyota jointly developed the bZ3 for the Chinese market with fellow automaker BYD. It will be produced by and sold through FAW Toyota (the company’s Chinese joint venture).

Over 100 Toyota engineers from the design, production, engineering and quality control departments worked closely with engineers from BYD and FAW Toyota to develop the bZ3. The car is built on the e-TNGA platform, and the battery structure, cooling, control and safety monitoring systems were all newly designed for this model.

BYD and its partners provided the battery technology, which uses an LFP chemistry. Toyota has worked to reduce battery degradation, and set a “development goal” of ensuring that the pack retains 90% of capacity after ten years. Range is expected to be at least 600 km.

The partners also worked hard to deliver class-leading aerodynamics—the bZ3 boasts a Cd value of 0.218.

Source: Toyota