Toyota Trademarks Four New BZ Model Names

These new names are also comprised of the letter “C” which could indicate they are two-door vehicles, or have coupe-like design.

Toyota bZ Compact SUV Concept and C-HR Prologue Concept

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Jan 12, 2023 at 7:26am ET

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Even though Toyota is one of the automakers whose top brass have said repeatedly they don’t want to fully commit to EVs, that doesn’t mean they won’t be produced. The Japanese giant currently only makes the bZ4X, but it has plans for many more models, which could use some of the names it recently trademarked.

Four new potential model names were trademarked, as discovered by a member of the Toyota BZ Forums. The names are BZ1C, BZ2C, BZ3C and BZ4C and we don’t really know what the “C” stands for.

It could be to designate models that only have two doors (actual coupes), although this seems unlikely. The more obvious answer would be that it could be used for coupe-like models, given that it seems to be the most common use of the term in the last decade in the automotive industry.

However, it could just simply refer to the fact that the models it would designate are cars, not crossovers or SUVs.

If we break down the bZ4X’s name, the first two letters signify “beyond zero,” the number refers to the vehicle’s size and then the final letter tells you that it’s a high-riding crossover. The letter “X” is now very common in the automotive industry and it almost exclusively is used to designate some type of taller vehicle that looks like it could go off-road.

Gallery: Toyota Small SU EV / C-HR Spy Shots

Toyota Small SU EV production model spy shots

Source: Automedia

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In early December 2022, Toyota announced that it was planning to launch five bZ-branded EVs in Europe by 2026. One of them is the production version of the bZ Small Crossover Concept, which has a fastback (or coupe-like) rear end, and it could use one of the newly trademarked names. It may be the camouflaged vehicle in the gallery above.

And since it is expected to slot below the bZ4X in the lineup, perhaps its production name will be bZ2C or bZ3C. Keep in mind that even though manufacturers trademark certain names, they don’t necessarily plan on using all of them and this could be the case this time – Toyota may have done this to make sure another company doesn’t get the rights to these names.