Toyota Motor Corp. has launched a partially remodeled version of its bZ4X electric vehicle featuring a driving range of up to 746 kilometers on a single charge, the longest for an EV in Japan.

The range increased by around 25 percent compared with the previous model.

Sales of the new bZ4X began on Thursday, with the price of a high-end model set at 5.5 million yen, lower than before the remodeling.

The bZ4X is a mainstay EV of Toyota that was first launched in April 2022.

With the latest enhancements, energy loss in the drive unit has been reduced, and the charging time has been greatly shortened by allowing fast charging with an output of 150 kilowatts. It only takes about 28 minutes to raise the battery level from 10 percent to 80 percent.

Toyota also started selling home-use chargers for its EVs and launched a membership charging service called "TEEMO" that allows customers to use chargers installed at affiliated dealers, in hopes of supporting the spread of EVs in Japan. 

TOYOTA PHOTO