Toyota's EV Sales Plunged in September After Recall, But Plans Improved Lineup (electrek.co) 66
Toyota sold just 61 BZ models in September, reports Electrek.
"Including the Lexus RZ, which managed 86 sales, Toyota sold just 147 all-electric vehicles in the US last month, over 90% less than the 1,847 it sold in September 2024." Toyota's total sales were up 14% with over 185,700 vehicles sold, meaning EVs accounted for less than 0.1%... So, why is Toyota struggling to sell EVs when the market is booming? For one, Toyota recalled over 95,000 electric vehicles last month, including the bZ4X, Lexus RZ, and Subaru Solterra, all of which are built on the same platform. The recall was due to a faulty defroster, but Toyota instructed its dealers to halt sales of the bZ4X, Lexus RZ, and Subaru Solterra.
Toyota hopes to turn things around with a new and improved lineup. The 2026 Toyota BZ (formerly the bZ4X) is arriving at US dealerships, promising to fix some of the biggest complaints with the outgoing electric SUV. Powered by a larger 74.7 kWh battery, the 2026 Toyota BZ offers up to 314 miles of driving range, a 25% improvement from the 2025 bZ4X... Toyota's new electric SUV also features a built-in NACS charge port, allowing for recharging at Tesla Superchargers. It also features a new thermal management system and battery preconditioning, which improves charge times from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes...
It's not just the US that Toyota's EV sales crashed last month, either. In its home market of Japan, Toyota (including Lexus) sold just 18 EVs in September.
The Japanese auto giant is betting on new models to drive growth.
"Including the Lexus RZ, which managed 86 sales, Toyota sold just 147 all-electric vehicles in the US last month, over 90% less than the 1,847 it sold in September 2024." Toyota's total sales were up 14% with over 185,700 vehicles sold, meaning EVs accounted for less than 0.1%... So, why is Toyota struggling to sell EVs when the market is booming? For one, Toyota recalled over 95,000 electric vehicles last month, including the bZ4X, Lexus RZ, and Subaru Solterra, all of which are built on the same platform. The recall was due to a faulty defroster, but Toyota instructed its dealers to halt sales of the bZ4X, Lexus RZ, and Subaru Solterra.
Toyota hopes to turn things around with a new and improved lineup. The 2026 Toyota BZ (formerly the bZ4X) is arriving at US dealerships, promising to fix some of the biggest complaints with the outgoing electric SUV. Powered by a larger 74.7 kWh battery, the 2026 Toyota BZ offers up to 314 miles of driving range, a 25% improvement from the 2025 bZ4X... Toyota's new electric SUV also features a built-in NACS charge port, allowing for recharging at Tesla Superchargers. It also features a new thermal management system and battery preconditioning, which improves charge times from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes...
It's not just the US that Toyota's EV sales crashed last month, either. In its home market of Japan, Toyota (including Lexus) sold just 18 EVs in September.
The Japanese auto giant is betting on new models to drive growth.
Japanese automakers absolutely dispise EVs (Score:2)
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One hopes !
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Once you drive an EV, it's hard to go back. My first car was 2001 Prius hybrid - HEV. It was nice, for its time. There wasn't anything else like it.
My first BEV has a 2012 Leaf, which I did not keep through its lease due to range issues. It was otherwise a fine car. I switched to a Volt PHEV in 2015. It's been a great car. However, when switching from electric to gas, it became a much noisier car. I sold the Volt a week ago, and now drive a 2025 Equinox BEV. My husband has been driving a Bolt EV since 2017.
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I daily drive a Ford Mach E, and my weekend / nice weather car is an old BMW Z3. It's hardly a fair comparison, but after Friday-Sunday in the Z3 and going back to work at the beginning of the week, the Mach E feels like an absolute spaceship. Then again I imagine just about anything made this decade would compare similarly against a car that was manufactured during the Clinton administration...
I don't know about more "enjoyable" though, part of the reason I have the Zed is because it's a convertible, and y
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"you don't see too many convertible EVs around"
only one i would buy that I can (almost) afford is the MG Cyberster but it's not available where i live
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It's been incredible to see so many of the ICE incumbents stumbling badly at building EV that customers want.
It's been more than a dozen years since Model S launched and despite Elon managing to punch himself in the face, shoot himself in the foot and kick himself in the balls all at once, they're still struggling to catch up.
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Indeed ! Musk certainly helped put EVs on everyone's radar. But not affordable. The less expensive EVs are coming from GM and Nissan in the US. In other countries, the Chinese are making downright cheap EVs.
Tesla has yet to produce a $35k car. That goal has been abandoned, as far as I can tell.
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they're still struggling to catch up.
That may be true in America, but that is a reflection of American patriotism and little to do with the cars themselves. The incumbents are doing just fine. Tesla hasn't been the top EV brand in Europe for many years, even before they were renamed SwastiCars because of his antics.
The problem is GM and Ford had no incentive to provide any meaningful alternatives for Americans, and most of the models available to me in Europe simply don't exist state side.
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BEVs are much more comfortable and enjoyable than gas cars, whether they are ICE, HEV or PHEVs. BEVs are simply superior technology, and will be taking over regardless of subsidies. Honda and Toyota have missed the boat, and deserve to be left behind.
I'd believe you that BEVs would take over the world if it weren't for a couple of very important details. First is that to produce enough batteries for all of these vehicles we'd need to increase mining for some vital minerals by orders of magnitude. We can get there but it would take decades of work to get there. Maybe if there's some large effort to mine this material, and turn them into batteries, on the scale of World War Part Two we could get production ramped up quickly but that's still years of ha
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It is amazing how wrong one can be in just one post.
Worldwide new car production is already 20% EV. China. The biggest market, is 50% BEV. Europe is 20%. The US is behind at just 10%. Nevertheless, the percentage keeps going up each year. More mining is coming online.
Electricity demand will go up a bit, but overall this will be a very small and gradual increase on the grid. Solar energy can be added very rapidly. This is not a real concern, either short or long term.
DC fast charging cost is of little releva
Re: Japanese automakers absolutely dispise EVs (Score:2)
Electricity demand will go up a bit, but overall this will be a very small and gradual increase on the grid. Solar energy can be added very rapidly. This is not a real concern, either short or long term.
Wow, who knew adding electricity to the grid was so simple? And I'm shocked to learn that charging an ever-growing plug-in EV fleet will hardly increase consumption at all ("very small and gradual increase")!
Wow, that's great - retail/consumer solar panels aren't the answer for charging EVs going forward, because, as a reminder, while your EV is in the parking lot at the office, your solar panels are home powering a nearby office park or residence. In many locals, I understand, the officials are ending the
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here in New Zealand you can already by a BYD BEV, with no subsidies, for the same price as the mid model Corolla and save money on running costs from day one.
But the Corolla will still be running a dozen years from now and parts will be plentiful. We'll have to wait a while to see if that is the case with the BYD, but until that point it would be wise to not consider that more than a maybe.
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Depends on how long you plan to keep it.
Well no my plan is irrelevant but someone else will hopefully be driving it for many years after me in any case. I have some concern that cheap Chinese BEVs may end up being somewhat synonymous with disposable BEVs. I know that is certainly a popular attribute for many things in the modern economy but I'm not sure it is something we want to be extending to automobiles.
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I have some concern that cheap Chinese BEVs may end up being somewhat synonymous with disposable BEVs.
Is there any reason to think Chinese BEV's are any worse quality than Tesla's? I think the reality is that its going to be hard for anyone to compete with the Chinese auto makers because they started with a huge untapped domestic market and are aggressively moving into the export market. For similar reasons US auto companies are unlikely to fail. They have a large developed domestic market and a developed export market.
If I was looking for a likely failure it would be Tesla. They were a one trick pony that
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Is there any reason to think Chinese BEV's are any worse quality than Tesla's?
Not if it is in the same price bracket, but not for a fraction of the price. Don't get me wrong, Chinese are very capable of building high quality stuff, but quality is not cheap no matter where you do it. They can also make the absolute cheapest flimsiest barely serviceable version of anything. Like things on Temu that may seem like a great deal, but don't expect them to last.
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Again the BEV part is not relevant, it is Chinese part that is relevant. I would share your concerns about some Chinese brands, but Gr
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My comment about how long you keep a car was more about new buyers who turn over their cars frequently.
Yes I know. My concern was that someone might think well you can get a new Chinese EV for only 15K so who cares if it only lasts five years? I only keep my cars that long but the used car market is still very important to a lot of people. I'm not American but I think the average car age is around 12 years. There are all sorts of reasons to not want that number to drop.
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If I had to bet I'd say in 10 years they sell just as many Corollas as they do today.
Toyota Corollas sales numbers peaked in the UK in 2006. They peaked in Europe a few years ago (and have been on a steady decline). Worldwide they are estimated to ship only 66% of the volume in 2025 vs 2024 based on current projections. And beyond the Corolla Toyota is really struggling across all markets. Toyota's global production peaked in 2007, and while they were rising in popularity in Japan, their export volume has plummeted since then.
Toyota will still be around in 10 years, as will the Corolla. But
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Blockbuster video was at its peak number of stores in 2004. In 2010 it went bankrupt.
That's because Blockbuster's business model was effectively obsolete with the invention of the DVD, but both they and the customer base didn't realize it yet.
Video tapes were a pain in the ass. They took a lot of space, they were subject to damage if handled incorrectly, and they wore out simply by using them. They were not well suited to anything more than local pickup and local return. That meant that for temporary rentals, a storefront like Blockbuster was generally necessary. As an ancillary busines
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What would render Toyota to be like Blockbuster is if companies like Waymo manage to introduce car-services that become so prolific that private car ownership becomes obsolete,
And the question is which is more inevitable BEV's, self driving vehicles or the end of personal ownership. In fact we may see all three, but that will make the customer for new vehicles very different. A lot of things Toyota is known for, like dependability and quality, may be far more important than whether they were late to adopt BEV technology.
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They're kind of pointless (Score:2)
They're also substantially more expensive and because they're new you don't really see any of the benefits of lower maintenance. Stuff brakes on them and you have to fix it and it's very expensive.
Without the heavy government subsidies they are mostly a neato novelty. I'm including oil and gas subsidies in that. EVs are much more energy efficient but that hardly matters w
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Your check is in the mail.
Best wishes,
Big Oil.
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Anyway the comment is mostly mine but I suspect there's a bit of nonsense in it I didn't say. There is a guy training his chatbot off of my comments and it mostly copies my comments but then adds a few bits of nastiness that aren't anything I would say. I think he's building a chat bot designed to mimic people so that he can either impersonate them or maybe get them caught up in automatic moderation systems.
That said the solution to our problems isn't more moth
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Hybrids get you 95% of the value without worrying about getting stuck waiting for a charge or having to call a tow instead of AAA.
While there's certainly a vocal minority of folks who claim to have 300 mile daily commutes, most don't. That's why it's called "range anxiety", because for the majority of use cases running out of juice is an irrational fear.
Where I will agree though, is that since the current administration killed the EV tax credits, hybrids are now looking a lot more cost competitive. It's why I'm still kind of surprised Elon was all for this, because it is going to totally screw over Tesla's sales. The rest of the ma
It's got nothing to do with range (Score:2)
So Elon thinks he can weather the loss of the subsidies because only about a quarter of his business depends on them. He is not a clever businessman. He's just somebody that blended into some huge government contracts using his father's connections and a golden parachute he got from PayPal after he was
Re: Japanese automakers absolutely dispise EVs (Score:2)
Why? Because they "dont like EVs"? Thats a bit non-sensical.
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Toyota and Honda will be effectively dead in three years.
You are delusional. All these 100% EV sales goals are getting repealed or indefinitely postponed. Like in Canada, etc., etc.
In 2025, EV sales require heavy incentives to happen. No incentives, hardly any sales.
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Sure [autoblog.com].
I didn't buy an EV last month after all... (Score:2)
I was looking, but didn't pull the trigger for various reasons - plus I discovered the ones I was interested in mostly didn't qualify for the (expiring) tax credit anyway.
But what's funny is - Hyundai *just* announced their 2026 lineup, and the prices are lower than the 2025 versions... by varying amounts, but all the reductions are more than the amount of the now-gone credit!
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Interesting about the massive Hyundai prices. I think this has more to do with their ability to compete with other manufacturers that have cheaper EVs.
For instance, I pulled a trigger on a base Chevy Equinox EV LT1 on August 14. With the $7500 tax credit applied at time of purchase, it cost me $27,644.75 out the door. I sold my 2015 Chevy Volt to Carvana on September 26 for $6,200. I was hoping to get a bit more to a private party by going through Keysavvy to someone qualifying for the used EV tax credit, b
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There actually is going to be a new Bolt released soon, but since the tax credit is gone, it was probably better to go with the Equinox EV.
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Yes. The release date is unknown, as are the specs. For a while, it looked it was going to be a 2027 model, not 2026.
I wish the timing worked out better with the release date of the Bolt and tax credit expiration.
They are failing because Toyota sucks at tech (Score:2)
The main reason Toyota is failing is that their EVs don't look like the future, and don't sell the dream of autonomous vehicles. If consumers don't think of Toyota as advanced or visionary, why would they buy their EVs from them?
Would you buy a CPU from McDonalds, no matter how great it is? When you think of McDonald's, the only thing you believe they're good at is fries, ice cream, and milkshakes. And Oreo McFlurries. Not CPUs. You don't think of McDonald's as someone smart enough to make a CPU. It's the s
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Not McDonalds but a decade ago KFC did market a Bluetooth keyboard.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/kfc... [pcmag.com]
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Truly autonomous vehicles just don't exist yet, and aren't for sale by any manufacturer yet. BEVs and PHEVs started appearing in the marketplace around 2010. They have been for sale for a while. Most of those who bought them love them, and would not go back to ICE.
I would truly welcome an autonomous vehicle today if it existed, especially with worsening vision problems. I wish one existed already, but it just isn't the case yet. When one is finally on the market, I am pretty sure it will be an autonomous BE
Re:They are failing because Toyota sucks at tech (Score:4, Interesting)
Nah, strong disagree.
Teslas sell because they're legitimately good EVs (aside from the Cybertruck, which is good at precisely zero things) and they have first-mover advantage.
Chinese EVs are impressive because they have everything including the kitchen sink in the vehicle and you could buy 4 of them for the price of one used F150.
Hyundais sell because they're interesting and decent vehicles. They don't promise the world, but you get decent value for your money.
The problem with the Toyota/Subaru EVs is that they come from companies that have a very strong value proposition in some way, but the EVs fail to meet those values. Toyotas are supposed to be reliable, good vehicles. They do everything you want, nothing is too flashy, and you know that car will still work in 15 years whether you take care of it or not. Subarus are reliable bad-conditions vehicles that can tackle actual offroading with no modifications and still get you around town comfortably without wasting gas.
The bz4rxzbzbzbzb or whatever (terrible name, a minor but notable problem) just doesn't live up to the Toyota badge, by all accounts. You've got no reason to buy it over a Rav4 or a Prius. It's heavier, worse to drive, worse than the competition, and the range is pretty mediocre. The Solterra is a Toyota with a Subaru badge, and underperforms every other vehicle in the lineup if you buy Subarus for being rugged but practical vehicles.
Toyota has even SAID that they don't really think much about EVs, they think everyone should have a hybrid. So when they built an EV, their hearts weren't really into it. Subaru just wanted something--ANYTHING--to fill the gap in their lineup, and they threw in with Toyota because that seemed like a safe bet. Wrong.
I'm sure the model will get better over time. Toyota likes making money, so they'll figure it out. But these cars don't sell well right now because they're bad.
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I don't buy Toyotas because I don't like paying a 15% to 30% markup for the same capabilities that other brands have, even with a reputation for better reliability.
As for these particular vehicles, I'm a little tired of the term "SUV". When I was young, an SUV was a Sport-Utility Vehicle, it was a high-clearance vehicle, usually four-wheel-drive, that was durable enough to leave paved roads for rough driving conditions. It was something that could go further off the beaten path than a station wagon or sed
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The bz4rxzbzbzbzb or whatever (terrible name, a minor but notable problem) just doesn't live up to the Toyota badge, by all accounts. You've got no reason to buy it over a Rav4 or a Prius.
I mean, it's not terrible. Acceleration is comparable to my 2017 Model X or a current-generation Model Y. (The current generation of Model X leaves it in the dust.) The main problem is that it has as little as 68% of the range of a current Model Y, despite being smaller than a Model Y, weighing less, and having slightly less powerful motors. And despite all of those compromises, it is still only $6k cheaper than the Model Y.
When you're spending about $40k on a car, the difference between $38k and $44k i
Asked & Answered (Score:2)
So, why is Toyota struggling to sell EVs when the market is booming?
Asked...
Toyota instructed its dealers to halt sales of the bZ4X, Lexus RZ, and Subaru Solterra.
and answered...
If the factory tells dealers to stop selling a model, it's not news to point out that sales of those models "plunged" after they (effectively) took them off the sales floor.
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Plus it's generally against the law to sell vehicles under-recall. Even used car dealerships aren't supposed to, though without enforcement from motor vehicle offices they are not as inclined to follow those laws and to check for recalls before selling.
Good (Score:2)
The PHEV is the future (Score:1)
I expect the PHEV to be the future of most every over the road vehicle.
I can expect someone is wanting to type out a reply on how the PHEV is a failure in reaching lower CO2 emissions because X% of people never plug them in, it's an excuse to continue burning fossil fuels, or some other bullshit. This is still an improvement on lowered CO2 emissions and air pollution because it is people having the more efficient hybrid electric vehicle than the traditional ICEV.
I'm confused on why there's even a class of
Toyota knows their customers.., (Score:1)
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and their customers aren't the EV crowd, and there's nothing wrong with that. People buy Toyotas for reliability, it's why I own one. My Toyota is 16 years old and has 250k miles. In 16 years, I've never had to repair anything, outside the standard maintenance services (oil changes, brakes, and tires). I'm gonna drive it to 300k and then buy the same thing that I have now but the hybrid version. After this experience, it would stupid to buy anything else.
My Lexus is 26 years old and has 371,000 miles. I test drove a new Model Y last month ahead of the Federal tax credit ending and while I liked it a lot and would really like FSD someday, in the end I decided my 26 year old RX300 meets my needs just fine. It's comfortable, reliable, readily and inexpensively repairable, can tow a trailer when I need it to, and costs me very little over gas and insurance.
EV's just don't work for most (Score:1)
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Take a look at a US population density map. [duckduckgo.com] You seem to be fantasizing that most people live in rural areas which is very much not the reality of the situation.
Some people live "out in the sticks" on farms or in the country and it takes time to get to a city.
That's a funny way of writing "a minority of people".
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I have not yet been in the market for a new vehicle when an EV would have been in my price range and otherwise meeting my needs, but I had done some basic research on defining the family needs. We concluded that an EV would need a 150 mile range on a single charge. This would be the equivalent to the range that around a half a tank of gasoline gives to most combustion vehicles. This would be enough range to from where we live to the extreme oppose edge of town and back, with around 20% battery to spare.
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I live almost in the sticks in cold cold northern MN. An EV works just fine for me. If I didn't have a charger at home, it would work more poorly. With a home charger I could do fine even truly out in the sticks. Sometimes one does go to the city - either it's less than 150mi away (ok, 100mi in February), or cities mysteriously have chargers and I can top up as needed for the roundtrip.
Sometimes I do drive it for days (across the midwest at least), where once again it works fine. Turns out time chargin
Not sold on EV's yet (Score:1)
Had a Prius from 2010-2020
On Year 5 of a 2020 Camry Hybrid
Went on a camping trip and a friend drove his Tesla, had to go well out of his way to find a charging station, and it took 3x the time to get home. The charging infrastructure just isn't there yet.
I personally would not consider an electric car as a primary vehicle, but something similar to a golf cart for runs to the grocery store, school in the morning, etc.. might be acceptable if priced appropriately. Waiting to see how the Slate does.
Last month in Japan (Score:2)
4 x Tesla Model 3s being driven on the road.
1 x Porsche Taycan parked at a home.
1 x BYD Atto 3 being driven on the road.
1 x Nissan Leaf or Ariya parked on the side of the road.
1 x Tesla dealership in Sendai.
1 x Nissan display across the road from Tachiyo's hotel in Ginza with a formula-e, an Ariya and a Hyper Force.
No FCEV of any brand or any Toyota or Honda BEVs were noticed. By contrast onc
toyota sells engines (Score:2)
Toyota makes and sells engines, its their number 1 thing. Toyota does not want to sell electric motors, Toyota wants to sell engines. And so it is.
Toyota North America sold 185,748 vehicles in US (Score:3)
As per https://pressroom.toyota.com/t... [toyota.com]
"Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) today reported September 2025 U.S. sales of 185,748 vehicles, up 14.2 percent on a volume basis and up 9.5 percent on a daily selling rate (DSR) basis versus September 2024. Sales of electrified vehicles for the month totaled 85,092 up 8.1 percent on a volume basis and up 3.6 percent on a DSR basis representing 45.8 percent of total sales volume."
Toyota is doing just fine selling hybrids.
Sadly, Americans have a very limited range of EVs (Score:1)
Out here in the real world EVs are everywhere. This is the future, you just need to leave America to experience it. Mostly Chinese, or locally-built Chinese EVs, and a handful of Chinese-built Teslas. I own an AIO UT sedan hatchback which blows away all others in its category and it cost under US$15,000! And I'll bet you've never heard of it if you live in the USA.
ICE car dealers including Mazda, Toyota, and Honda are closing down and reopen selling XPENG and ZEEKR and MG and BYD. Petrol stations are disap