What I Learned Driving the 'All Electric' Toyota bZ4X Touring from Brisbane to Sydney and Back

When Brisbane's Downtown Toyota handed me the keys to the all-electric bZ4X Touring for a Brisbane to Sydney road trip with my family, I'll admit I was a little nervous. I'd never driven this far in an electric vehicle before, and range anxiety is real. 

We departed Sunday 28 June and returned Saturday 4 July, and by the end of the trip, I'd learned so much — and honestly, fallen a bit in love with electric road tripping.

First Impressions

Stepping inside felt instantly familiar, since the interior reminded me a lot of my own RAV4, Olivia (the Pink Toyota). But it was even more spacious than I expected. With the kids in the back, a boot full of all of our things, and my teenager Fletcher's long legs behind me, there was still loads of legroom — which almost never happens on our long drives.

Planning the Trip

I used a combination of tools to plan our route and charging stops. Claude helped me construct an initial charging plan, which I then cross-checked with the Chargefox app and Google Maps. That combination gave me real confidence before we even left the driveway.

Andy and I shared the driving. When it was my turn to navigate from the passenger seat, I used the USB-C charging port up front so I could sneak in some laptop work while Andy drove, which was a lovely bonus for a working mum on the road.

Heading Down: The Learning Curve

On the way down, we used fast and ultra-fast paid chargers, which only added about 30–45 minutes each stop — plenty of time for a coffee, a stretch, and some fun family games while we waited. It was smooth, but we spent more than we expected on charging — $140 all up.

Heading Home: Lessons Applied

The return trip is where the real lessons showed. We started with a full battery thanks to a free charger at a shopping centre the day before we left, topped up again overnight at a free charger at our resort, and made a few small driving changes: 

• Easing off our speed by just one or two kilometres under the limit
• Keeping a safe, steady following distance behind trucks, which noticeably improved efficiency
• Letting regenerative braking do its thing — recapturing energy instead of wasting it

Combined, these small changes stretched our range much further. We only paid for one public charge the entire way home — which meant we drove all the way from Sydney to Brisbane for just $40.

In total, we spent approximately $180 charging the bZ4X Touring for our Brisbane to Sydney return trip. And with what we learned, I'm confident next time we could do it for just $80.

Features That Made the Long Journey Easy

A few things made the drive genuinely comfortable and stress-free:

• Dynamic Radar Cruise Control — set a speed and just relax into it
• Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist — a gentle nudge if attention drifted
• A big, clear Apple CarPlay screen running Google Maps, so following directions was effortless
• Charging ports in the back for the kids' devices, and USB-C charging up front for my laptop
• The myToyota Connect app, which let us check charging progress from wherever we were — coffee, lunch, or playing with the kids — without walking back to the car

My Favourite Part

Honestly, it was the family time. New car games invented, lots of laughing, and everyone comfortable enough to relax or sleep the whole way — no cramping, no soreness.

I was genuinely sad to hand the bZ4X back at the end of the trip, but excited to get my pink Toyota, Olivia, back too — she's very much part of the family as well.

My Advice for Other Families

• If you're considering a long electric road trip:
• Use AI to help plan your route and charging stops
• Download Chargefox and myToyota Connect before you leave
• Do a little research on efficient electric driving — it really is different from driving petrol

____________________________________________

Kirsty Foster is the founder and CEO of Social Mums Club, connecting thousands of mums across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and Melbourne. Downtown Toyota are proud sponsors of Social Mums Club, and Kirsty is a Downtown Toyota Ambassador.