New Toyota appearing in South Africa this week – What to expect

A new Toyota is set to make an appearance at the Naamsa AutoWeek taking place between 1 and 3 October later this week.

The country’s best-selling carmaker will be one of the leading presences at the event, which is meant to bring together key stakeholders from across the automotive industry to discuss the future of mobility and industrial development in South Africa.

A major attraction at the event is the Auto Innovation Exhibition, where automakers plan to show off their latest vehicles as a glimpse of what the public can potentially look forward to in the near future.

Naturally, Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) will be one of the companies participating in the exhibition with a range of cars across its Toyota, Lexus, and Hino brands.

TSAM recently confirmed that the event will feature a number of vehicles, including ones we’ve already seen like the Corolla Cross, Lexus RX, and the special-edition Hilux 55.

However, it also stated that it will showcase the bZ4x – the company’s first mass-produced battery electric vehicle (BEV).

This is not the first time we’ve heard about the bZ4x, as it has been hinted at a local debut for years now.

The electric crossover was even featured at Toyota’s 2024 State of the Motoring Industry address, which is an annual event where the carmaker highlights all of its new models for the upcoming year.

It was initially scheduled to debut in the first quarter of 2025 alongside its Lexus counterpart – the RZ – but Toyota later announced that the car’s launch had been delayed to 2026.

It appears the company is still on track for this new release window, too, as Reuters reported in late August that TSAM plans to launch three new electric cars in South Africa next year.

Speaking on the sidelines of an industry event, TSAM CEO Andrew Kirby revealed that the company will launch its first BEVs at the start of 2026, though he did not elaborate on which models these would be.

“We’re launching battery electric vehicles at the beginning of 2026, so we will have three new battery electric vehicles,” he said.

“We do not believe that one powertrain is going to dominate in the future. So we’ll have internal combustion engines, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles, fuel cell electric vehicles and potentially even a carbon neutral internal combustion engine.”

A new chapter for Toyota

Toyota has avoided getting too involved in the electric vehicle (EV) space up till now, not just in South Africa but around the world.

While carmakers like Tesla and BYD are leading the global push for BEVs, Toyota has centred most of its resources on developing hybrids like the Corolla Cross and Rav4, which have proven to be incredibly popular.

In South Africa, Toyota has a 67% share of the new-energy vehicle market, though the competition from Chinese rivals like Chery, Haval, and BYD is starting to heat up.

Volvo currently leads the EV scene thanks to the well-received EX30 crossover, but BYD is quickly gaining traction thanks to affordable models like the Dolphin.

It’s therefore possible that Toyota has finally decided to enter the EV scene to avoid losing ground to Chinese competitors.

The automaker hasn’t shared any details about the bZ4x itself, but we know from other markets that it is offered in both front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive configurations with one or two electric motors, respectively.

The single motor units generate 150kW, while the dual-motor option has an 80kW e-motor over each axle, giving it a combined output of 160kW.

In both cases, a 71.4kWh battery is used as a power source to give the car a driving range of 460km.

More information about the Toyota bZ4x will hopefully be announced at the Naamsa event later this week.