On March 7, GAC Toyota announced that its third fully electric SUV under the bZ brand has accumulated over 10,000 orders within the first hour of launch.

The server was so overwhelmed on the Toyota APP that several people shared online that their booking page could not load.

Source: GAC-Toyota

The bZ3X offers 7 variants priced between 104,800 to 154,800 CNY (approximately 14,500 to 21,400 USD).

The starting price has shocked many people in China as the first two bZ models, the bZ3 and bZ4X, start at 169,800 and 179,800 CNY, respectively.

At 104,800 CNY, even comparing with domestic brands like BYD, the bZ3X is offering a truly competitive SUV for value conscious buyers.

The SUV can be equipped with a LiDAR unit and Momenta’s end-to-end advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) starting at 149,800 CNY. The vehicle supports mapless highway and city autopilot, and autonomous parking.

The bZ3X will also be equipped with an NVIDIA Orin X intelligent driving chip, capable of 254 TOPS and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip.

The center console features a 14.6 inch horizontal touch screen and an 8.8 inch LCD instrument cluster.

The Toyota bZ3X is positioned as a compact SUV, measuring 4,600 mm in length, 1,875 mm in width, and 1,654 mm in height with a wheelbase of 2,765 mm.

The SUV comes in three LFP battery variants supplied by ZEnergy and CALB, 50.0 kWh, 58.4 kWh, and 67.9 kWh, capable of 430 km, 520 km, and 610 km in CLTC range, respectively.

GAC-Toyota

GAC-Toyota is one of two joint ventures that Toyota operates in China, with the second one being FAW-Toyota.

GAC-Toyota has seen sales in China gradually decline as the automotive industry transitions towards new energy vehicles and as domestic brands like BYD introduce extremely competitive vehicles at affordable prices.

That trend becomes evident by looking at the last 12 months (L12M) average of monthly retail sales, which has continuously declined since beginning of 2023.

As of January, GAC-Toyota delivers on average 63,477 vehicles monthly, compared to nearly 80,000 units per month on average just 2 years ago.