Trademark filings have revealed that Toyota plans to expand its BZ series of electric cars, but what does ‘C’ stand for?
Toyota’s Japanese head office has filed four new trademarks that can be used on its future electric models.
In addition to his current BZ-series line of electric cars, which so far includes the BZ3 Y BZ4X – Toyota has now filed trademarks for BZ1C, BZ2C, BZ3C and BZ4C.
The files were first discovered by a member of the BZ Forums, and suggests that the Japanese car giant may be looking to expand its BZ range to include additional body styles or options for the battery and electric motors.
The letter C could stand for ‘coupe’, with backward-sloping versions of vehicles that could be sold alongside traditional models, such as the BMW 3 and 4 Series Gran Coupe, and X5 and X6.
Or the names could refer to ‘crossover’, which is an industry term for vehicles that bridge the gap between traditional hatch or station wagon bodies and high-rise SUVs such as the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and GLA.
At the opening of the Chinese market BZ3 in October 2022, Toyota teased the third member of its BZ electric car range (above): a vehicle with a similar silhouette to the newly introduced crown toyota sedan and toyota prius hatch models, though it’s unclear at this stage if the vehicle is a BZ3X, BZ3C, or something else entirely.
Interestingly, although Toyota previously applied for the BZ1, BZ1X, BZ2, BZ2X, BZ3, BZ3X, BZ4, BZ4X, BZ5, and BZ5X trademarks, the company does not appear to have applied for BZ5C.
This suggests that plans for the company’s future model line have already been developed within the company, rather than the names being simply trademarked to protect future use.
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