Off-Road

I wasn’t expecting an off-road capable bZ from Toyota so I wasn’t able to schedule a trip to my usual off-road spot in the Mojave Desert during the week I had the vehicle. I did take it to another (closer) location in the Mojave Desert but that area is not nearly as challenging. All I can say is that the limited (very light) off-road testing that I did posed no problems. The Dunlop Grandtrek tires, high ground clearance (8.4 inches), and X-MODE make this a solid off-road vehicle capable of handling much more challenging off-road conditions than I was able to throw at it.

Speed

This was a surprise. Despite its size (the Woodland’s stretched rear wagon profile extends the length almost six inches more than the standard bZ) and weight (the curb weight is about 4,500 pounds) it has addictive torque. I did most of my driving in Los Angeles traffic on Interstate 5, 405, and 118. Let me just say this: while it’s not a Lucid (I’ve test driven Lucids twice for a week each time), it feels close. My favorite stretch of highway with the bZ Woodland was the rise on 118 as it approaches the Ventura County line. Whenever I punched it on this upgrade, it would fly up that hill like the hill wasn’t there. Almost gravity-defying.

Charging

The bZ’s Tesla (NACS) port is a godsend. I’ve used alternative public chargers for years and they don’t hold a candle to Tesla’s Supercharger network. Tesla’s secret is uptime and redundancy. Usually most (if not all) of the chargers are working and even if a couple are down, there’s always enough working chargers because every Supercharger location in Los Angeles has at least 12 chargers (usually a lot more). And you always get a fast charge.

Range

While it’s rated at about 280 miles, I did have a battery rundown incident. (See the video.) When I began my trip back from the Mojave Desert I had about 80 miles of range left and that fell to about 30 miles once I reached Castaic, a location in the high desert just north of Santa Clarita. I didn’t anticipate this being a problem because I’ve had this scenario happen to me before in my Chevy Bolt and other EVs I’ve tested. In the Bolt’s case, it was never a problem because the Bolt is very good at conserving power once you shut down the HVAC and reduce speed. A long story short: by the time I reached a Tesla Supercharger in Simi Valley, I was down to 2 miles in the bZ. (I actually didn’t think I would make it.) The rundown of the battery in the last 10-20 miles was surprising. Though in fairness, I had violated the cardinal rule of long-distance EV travel: ABC, Always Be Charging.

ADAS

The Advanced Driver Assistance System is basic lane centering (see video above for more). What Toyota calls Lane Tracing Assist (LTA). On the highway, it automatically positions the car in the middle of its travel lane. In other words, it steers the car if you stay in the lane and keep your hands on the steering wheel. But that’s it. (Note that adaptive cruise control handles the braking and maintaining the distance from the car in front of you.)

Lane Tracing Assist was erratic, often disengaging if it couldn’t read the markers on the road or believed I wasn’t paying attention. That said, when Toyota’s driver assist was working, it was very helpful at navigating Los Angeles traffic. In heavy traffic, an ADAS can be a life saver: it takes a lot of the stress and soul-crushing monotony out of driving.

Toyota’s ADAS is not at the level of General Motors Super’s Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise (not to mention Tesla’s Full Self-Driving). Those systems are truly hands free and also change lanes (i.e., overtake slower cars), essentially handling most of the highway driving.

Conclusion

The Toyota bZ Woodland is a comfortable, roomy electric SUV with enough range for most drivers. And with access to the Tesla Supercharger network, long trips shouldn’t be a problem.