New Toyota bZ4X vs Ford Mustang Mach-E vs Kia EV6: costs
Toyota has long been at the vanguard of hybrid technology, but the bZ4X is its first modern electric car. How does it compare with two of the most exciting alternatives?...
Buying and owning
Costs, equipment, reliability, safety and security
If you’re in a lucky enough position to pay for one of these cars up front, the Toyota bZ4X will work out the cheapest to own over three years. That’s partly because it costs the least to buy initially, but mainly because of its slower predicted depreciation. The Kia EV6 will end up costing you roughly £1200 extra to own over the same period and the Ford Mustang Mach-E works out around £1300 more expensive.
The news is even worse for the Mach-E if you’re planning to sign up to a PCP finance agreement. Put down a £5000 deposit on a three-year term with an annual limit of 10,000 miles and you’ll pay a whopping £758 a month, compared with £656 for the EV6 and £607 for the bZ4X. It’s worth noting, however, that should you decide to buy the bZ4X at the end of the three-year period, it has a much larger final ‘balloon’ payment than the other two cars.
Company car drivers needn’t worry too much about the list price disparity, because all of these cars sit in the 2% benefit-in-kind tax band. So, over a three-year period, opting for the bZ4X (the cheapest) over the Mach-E (the priciest) will save you only around £70 in salary sacrifices, assuming you’re in the 40% tax bracket. Compare that with the enormous amount extra you’d have to shell out for a petrol or diesel SUV and it’s obvious why so many company car drivers are going electric.
All three come with LED headlights, keyless entry and start, heated front seats, adaptive cruise control and alloy wheels – 18s on the Mach-E and bZ4X and 19s on the EV6. The bZ4X adds a heat pump, which is a useful feature in winter, because it helps to warm the interior of the car more efficiently, reducing the impact on range. To get one of these on the EV6, you’ll need to stump up an extra £900, while you can’t have one on the Mach-E at all – which is odd, considering that it comes with a heated windscreen (a lifesaver on frosty mornings).
The Mach-E has the smallest battery (70kWh) and is the slowest to charge, taking at least 40 minutes to go from 10-80% using a suitable CCS charger. The bZ4X accepts quite a bit more power (150kW versus 115kW), cutting the charging time down to just over 30 minutes. However, both cars look rather tardy compared with the EV6, which, with a maximum charging rate of 239kW, can reach 80% in just 18 minutes in ideal conditions. The catch is that, at present, there aren’t many public charging points capable of delivering that much power.
All three were too new to appear in the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, but Toyota as a brand finished in fifth place out of 30 contenders, a little ahead of Kia (ninth). Ford, meanwhile, finished way down in joint 27th place.
Both Kia and Toyota offer impressive warranties. The EV6 is covered for seven years/100,000 miles on most components, including the battery, while Toyota offers an eight-year warranty on the battery and three years/100,000 miles on the rest of the car, both of which can be extended (at no additional charge) to up to 10 years with annual main dealer servicing. The Mach-E comes with a three-year, 60,000- mile general warranty and eight-year/100,000-mile battery cover.
All three come with plenty of driver aids, including automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance and blindspot monitoring, but the EV6 and bZ4X add to this with a driver attention monitor and a safe exit assist feature (which stops you from opening your door on unseen cars and cyclists). The bZ4X hasn’t yet been appraised for safety by Euro NCAP, but both the Mach-E and EV6 achieved a five-star rating.
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