Introduction to the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
Toyota's elongated, estate version of the bZ electric SUV is called the Touring. It is sold in European markets with either single- or dual-motor power, but here in Ireland we don't get the all-wheel-drive option, so it really is best to think of this as an electric wagon rather than a proper off-roading SUV. And yes, this is sold as the bZ4X Touring in some markets, but Toyota Ireland is marketing it as the easier-to-understand bZ Touring.
Pros & cons of the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
Pros:
• Rugged styling
• Smooth and comfortable
• Massive boot
Cons:
• Uninvolving steering
• Not much powertrain choice
• Is the driving range enough?
Exterior & design of the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
• Stands 140mm longer than bZ
• Lots of off-road-themed addenda
• Black 18-inch alloys fitted
The Touring looks much like a Toyota bZ, only with a longer roofline back to a much more upright tailgate. It's about 140mm longer than the standard bZ (and 20mm taller), and all that added length is behind the rear axle.
Other styling features of the exterior include black-plastic lower-body cladding, black 18-inch wheels in the arches, a set of roof rails up top and silver skid-plate details in the front and rear bumpers.
The bZ Touring features Toyota's signature 'Hammerhead' front-light detailing and a plain full-width light bar at the back; two symbolisers which differentiate the bZ wagon from the related - and visually almost identical - Subaru E-Outback, which has its own style of lamps fore and aft.
Dimensions of the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
Length: 4,830mm
Width: 1,860mm (excluding mirrors)
Height: 1,675mm
Wheelbase: 2,850mm
Paint colours for the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
Oddly, every colour on the Toyota bZ Touring seems to incur a cost, according to the Irish configurator. The cheapest is the non-metallic Crystal Black at €525.
Moving up, three metallics cost €805 apiece, these being Ice Silver, Magnetite Grey and Brilliant Bronze. At the top of the tree are a pair of pearlescent paints, Crystal White and Azure Blue, and either of these command a fee of €1,105.
Interior, practicality, tech & comfort of the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
• 14-inch infotainment system
• Lots of space, big boot
• No glovebox or 'frunk'
Material quality inside the Toyota bZ Touring is fine, accepting the company locates the cheaper plastics in places you'd barely ever touch in normal day-to-day usage, and the ergonomics are sound too.
However, the cabin of the EV can be quite dour and plain, and not everyone likes either the very high-set instrument cluster - which looks a bit plonked on the dashboard - or the ungainly centre boss of the steering wheel (which, mercifully, at least has a perfectly round rim as recompense).
Getting comfortable in the driver's seat
The driver's seat on the solitary Sport trim of the Toyota bZ Touring has electric adjustment, while the column can be adapted for both reach and rake manually.
The resulting driving position is pleasant enough, with good visibility out of the glasshouse in most directions - a slightly pinched vista through the rear-view mirror aside - and no major grumbles about reaching various switches and controls from the seat itself.
Infotainment and technology
Toyota provides a 14-inch infotainment screen for the bZ Touring, which has physical switchgear for the climate control clearly built into it - a boon.
The system runs Android Auto and Apple CarPlay wirelessly if you don't like the proprietary graphics, and it is accompanied by a seven-inch TFT display for the instrument cluster.
Further tech highlights include heated front seats and a couple of wireless smartphone charging pads on the central tunnel. Additionally, a heat pump, an essential and useful bit of kit on any EV, is standard.
Practicality around the cabin
Up front are capacious door pockets, an under-dash storage areas complete with USB ports, two cupholders moulded into the tunnel and then a large central cubby beneath the armrest.
However, there is no glovebox at all in the Toyota bZ Touring - instead, that part of its fascia is simply covered in plain, featureless cloth.
Rear-seat passenger space
Its EV platform and near-2.9-metre wheelbase, plus elevated roofline, all combine to make passenger space in the back of the Toyota bZ Touring suitably generous.
Leg- and headroom are superb, while an almost flat floor (there's a slight hump in the middle) means seating three people across the bench ought not to be impossible, provided they're not all of the larger build.
Other creature comforts in the back include two air vents and two USB-C ports on the rear of the front-armrest construction which reaches into the second-row footwell, plus a central fold-down armrest which incorporates two cupholders and a recess for smartphone devices.
The door bins aren't very long in the back, but they are big enough and shaped specifically to accommodate large drinks bottles, while there are elasticated stowage pockets on the backs of the front seats.
Fitting child seats to the Toyota bZ Touring
There are two ISOFIX points with top tethers in the outer two seating positions of the rear bench. Due to the space provided, the size of the rear doors and their apertures, and the angle to which the doors open, fitting bulky child seats into the back of the Toyota bZ Touring ought to be a cinch.
Boot space in the Toyota bZ Touring
Toyota quotes a whopping 669 litres of boot space, which is only up to the window line in the correct manner but does incorporate the underfloor storage zone.
Still, it's a big boot by volume and, with the 60:40 split-folding rear seats folded down, up to 1,718 litres are liberated - a direct beneficial corollary of the bZ Touring's estate shape.
The boot has further features, like an adjustable floor, lashing eyes for a cargo net, handles to drop the rear seats from the tailgate and also moulded hooks in the side trim.
Safety in the Toyota bZ Touring
Neither the Toyota bZ Touring nor the Subaru E-Outback, its direct equivalent, have been tested by Euro NCAP. For reference, Toyota's EVs tend to pick up full five-star ratings when assessed, while all of Subaru's cars have the top accolade as well - so we'd expect the Touring to follow suit.
Performance of the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
• Single-motor drivetrain only
• Ample power and torque
• Majors on comfort over acuity
We will be getting just the single-motor, front-wheel-drive Toyota bZ Touring in Ireland. This features a 165kW electric motor, sending up to 224hp and 269Nm of torque to the front wheels via a single-speed reduction transmission. The kerb weight of this vehicle is less than two tonnes, which is a positive for an EV such as this.
Driving the Toyota bZ Touring Sport on Slovenian roads
Words by Matt Robinson on 13 May 2026
The primary focus of the Toyota bZ Touring is comfort, rather than any speed or cornering dynamism. And this, for a near-two-tonne family SUV with electric power, is a sensible decision on the carmaker's part, we feel.
It's not that the Toyota is bad in the corners, though. Sure, there's a bit of lean, while the Touring will ultimately wash into understeer if you provoke it too much.
Also, the steering - while nice and consistent in its responses across the lock, and accurate too - lacks for much in the way of feel, while it could do with more weighting and bite when initially turning off dead-centre.
But once you work through that, you realise the bZ Touring keeps good control of its body and wheels, it doesn't roll too far over once that initial lean has begun, and it has a sweetly balanced platform that makes it safe, predictable and capable of being hustled if you want to do such a thing to the car.
Yet it's much nicer to revel in the Toyota's ride comfort, which - on the small 18-inch wheels which are our only choice in this market - is excellent. As it has conventional springs and dampers, there are occasions over the very roughest tarmac surfaces where it can bounce a touch too much and feel like the frame of the vehicle is getting away from the suspension, but these are rare instances.
For most of the time, the bZ Touring is silky smooth and supremely quiet. You don't hear very much road, wind or suspension noise, and of course as an EV there are no drivetrain noises or vibrations to have to deal with, so the refinement is magnificent. Around town, on faster routes or cruising along motorways, the Toyota feels sophisticated and stable.
It's also quick enough for most people's reasonable needs. It accelerates swiftly to 100km/h, even if you're not doing a timed run and are being more realistic with accelerator inputs, and it has sufficient torque to easily keep up with everyday traffic flow in a wide variety of scenarios.
The braking is also well-judged, with four modes of regenerative force selectable. In none of these does the car ever truly 'coast', nor conversely is there a one-pedal mode, but aside from some slight sponginess to the start of the brake pedal's travel, the way the bZ Touring stops is almost as nice as the way it goes.
As a front-wheel-drive bZ Touring, the Toyota isn't expected to go off the beaten track, but it does still have a Snow mode to assist with momentum on slippery surfaces, while 212mm of ground clearance, a wading depth of 500mm and its approach/departure angles of 17.3 and 21.1 degrees respectively make it a more capable off-roader than most EVs of a similar ilk.
Range, battery, charging and running costs of the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
• One battery pack option
• Range of nearly 600km
• Very cheap to run, like all EVs
Both the range and the charging speeds of the bZ Touring are adequate, but they're perhaps not exceptional by the latest standards. There's just one battery and electric powertrain offered to Irish buyers.
Battery options and official range of the Toyota bZ Touring
Toyota uses a CATL-sourced 74.7kWh battery pack for the bZ Touring, of which 71kWh is usable capacity. The battery is of nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistry and can provide up to 591km in the Touring's solitary Sport specification on 18-inch wheels.
Real-world range and efficiency of the Toyota bZ Touring
We first drove the bZ Touring in Slovenia, where we were sent on a 90km mixed-roads route through the spectacularly pretty country that first of all included some 130km/h motorway running, before wending through roads in town and countryside - and then onto a gravel-track portion climbing into the glorious Julian Alps.
The temperatures were mild (circa 13-14 degrees C) and the climate control in the car was running constantly. That drain on the electrics, and the high-speed motorway work plus scrabbling up the steep ascents of the off-road mountain section of the test loop, resulted in a 19.1kWh/100km indicated showing - some way off the official 14kWh/100km, and which would in turn yield something like 372km from a charge; a long drop from 591km, we're sure you'll agree.
However, we think more courteous driving styles should significantly improve this electrical efficiency, as we later got 15.1kWh/100km under different circumstances.
We'd suggest that owners should be able to get much closer to 14kWh/100km on our roads, which'd be something in the region of 500km to a charge.
Charging up the Toyota bZ Touring
The Irish-market cars all come with 11kW AC charging and a peak rate of 150kW on DC.
These figures should be enough to top the battery from 10-80 per cent in just 28 minutes on a suitable DC hook-up (and, with pre-conditioning, Toyota says this timeframe is possible in an ambient temperature range of -10 to 20 degrees Centigrade), while at 11kW a 10-100 per cent routine would be done in seven hours.
On a more typical 7.4kW domestic charger, that latter cycle would take something beyond ten hours.
Servicing the Toyota bZ Touring
The Toyota bZ Touring follows the usual EV servicing interval of 12 months or 16,000km, as per the bZ SUV.
Toyota bZ Touring warranty
Toyota Ireland has an EV-specific warranty that applies to the bZ Touring, which is for five years or 100,000km, whichever comes sooner. This covers the vehicle itself, like any normal warranty, as well as the electric system components, the electric motor, the high-voltage battery and the EV's inverter and converter.
There is also Toyota Relax, which is a service-activated 12-month extension to the standard cover - dependent on whether you have an annual service in an official Toyota garage. If you do, then you can extend this for up to ten years or 165,000km, whichever is triggered first.
On top of that, the company guarantees that the bZ Touring's battery will still be good for 70 per cent of its original capacity up to eight years or 160,000km; again, whichever comes sooner.
Irish pricing & rivals to the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
• One spec, one drivetrain, one price
• Commands small premium over bZ
• Few obvious direct competitors
The Toyota bZ Touring is sold in Ireland only as a Sport model with front-wheel drive and the 71kWh battery, resulting in a starting figure of €44,881, inclusive of grants and VRT relief.
That's €2,421 more than the equivalent-spec bZ SUV. It should also be a lot less than the Subaru E-Outback, as and when prices for that car are confirmed in Ireland, as that will be sold purely as the 381hp dual-motor AWD.
The Subaru is effectively the same car as the bZ Touring but with different badging and lights, and is the only direct competitor to the Toyota.
Your other choices are the non-estate EVs from the same manufacturer, like the C-HR+ and bZ (and, obviously, their Subaru analogues in the form of the Uncharted and Solterra, respectively), or - if you do want a zero-emission wagon - something like the Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake Electric or the Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer. However, neither of those German cars have any sort of off-road-influenced styling or pretence of rough-roads capability as the bZ Touring does.
Verdict - should you buy the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring?
If you want an off-road-oriented, all-electric estate car, the Toyota bZ Touring should be mighty high on your list of potential vehicles - because it, along with the co-developed Subaru E-Outback, is essentially your only option.
That's not all it has going for it though. It's a likeable machine with a massive boot, loads of interior space and the twin benefits of being both a pragmatic Toyota and an inexpensive-to-run EV.
FAQs about the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring
Can the Toyota bZ Touring tow anything?
Yes, the front-wheel-drive model is rated to haul up to 750kg of braked trailer. Those wishing to tow larger loads might lament the AWD's absence from our pricelists, as that can pull double this amount with a 1,500kg capability.
Is the Toyota bZ Touring all-wheel drive?
It is in dual-motor format, but we're not getting that version here. Instead, all Irish-market bZ Tourings will be front-wheel drive.
Is the Toyota bZ Touring fast?
As a front-driven model, we'd say it was more 'admirably brisk' than out-and-out fast. The bZ Touring has 224hp and 269Nm, moving 1,965kg of EV about the place, but a 7.3-second 0-100km/h time says much about the ample real-world pace the Toyota possesses.
Can I fit child seats into a Toyota bZ Touring?
Yes, there are two ISOFIX positions on the back bench-seat of the Toyota bZ Touring.
Want to know more about the 2026 Toyota bZ Touring?
If there's anything about the Toyota bZ Touring we've not covered, or you'd like help in choosing between it and other cars, you can avail of our expert advice service via the Ask Us Anything page.
