Toyota bZ Woodland Plays At Being Rugged

Toyota has suddenly become more aggressive with its EV market strategy, and that includes the rugged looking all-new bZ Woodland. New for the 2026 model year, it of course has black plastic cladding on the bumpers, rockers, and fenders, the calling card of soft vehicles trying to look like hardcore off-roaders.

This classic Porsche 911 is being sold for cheap, but with a catch.

This sort of thing has been done before with vehicles like the Honda Element and is currently employed on various Subaru Wilderness models and the Honda Passport. We’d say automakers just think people are suckers and will fall for this obvious marketing tactic, but it seems to be effective.

Right now, we know some Subaru people and perhaps some others are offended and readying nasty emails because we dare to say their all-wheel-drive wagon isn’t every bit as capable of an off-roader as a Jeep Wrangler.

Back to the Toyota bZ Woodland, it comes with all-wheel drive standard, has a system output of 375-horsepower, and can go up to 260 miles on a single charge. The midsize SUV is being marketed as a rugged outdoorsman vehicle to people who probably believe going to a national park is about as wild as it gets.

That’s okay, except when the crowd with these types of rides ventures onto truly challenging trails where they don’t belong. That can lead to an off-road traffic jam as Suzy in her Subaru Outback Wilderness or Tom in his Toyota bZ Woodland gets in over their heads and need a rescue.

The sad part is, unlike Honda and Subaru, Toyota knows how to build highly capable off-roaders. It would’ve been interesting to see one of those in an EV format, but instead we get this half measure. There’s a big market for these kinds of vehicles, allowing suburbanites to feel like they’re adventurous while going for their latte at Starbucks.

But if you just look at the image Toyota shared of the bare chassis of the bZ Woodland, you can see the battery pack sits lower than the front and rear axles, which sit pretty low themselves, making this thing prone to getting hung up on obstacles, should you be foolish enough to actually take it on trails.

Images via Toyota