However, at the Brussels Motor Show, Andrea Carlucci - Director of Marketing and Product Development of Toyota Europe said: "The company's new electric vehicles may not follow the contract but will maintain a separate name in Toyota's product line to avoid nameplating inflation, to simplify for consumers".
Therefore, Toyota's second electric vehicle model - Urban Cruiser, has ignored this Convention to use the name from another product portfolio of the company. The Urban Cruiser will be produced in India alongside Suzuki eVitara.
In 2024, although sales of the bZ4X have almost doubled, Toyota is still falling behind in the US electric vehicle market. Foreign rivals such as Hyundai and Kia are increasingly developing and surpassing. Even other Japanese automakers, Honda and Nissan, have sold more electric vehicles than Toyota in the US.
Toyota is proud that its electric vehicle sales will reach more than 1 million units in the US in 2024, but mostly thanks to hybrid models. With 1,854 bZ4Xs sold in December 2024, total sales of this electric vehicle model will reach 18,570 units in 2024. This result is an increase of 99% compared to 9,329 units sold in 2023, but still a very small number compared to Honda's 33,000 Prologue units in 2024.
Nissan also surpassed Toyota in selling nearly 19,800 Ariya electric SUVs in the same period. Nissan's Leaf model has added 11,226 units to the US in 2024, up 57% from 2023.
