What Wears Out
Toyota · Fully electric · 138 inspections in 2024 · Rank 1 of 83DVSA MOT analysis

The Toyota BZ4X: 0.7% first-time failure, tyres the reason

138 inspections in a single year make the BZ4X the best-documented electric car in the data. Tyres cause 100.0% of its failures; tyres take 4.2× the share they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.

FIGURE 1 // WHERE IT WEARSToyota BZ4X
TYRES 100.0%(4.2× the petrol/diesel share)SUSPENSION 0.0%(0.0× the petrol/diesel share)BRAKES 0.0%(0.0× the petrol/diesel share)

Top three failure systems, annotated from 1 failed first-time tests. Arrows point to where the defect is found on the car.

First-time test findings

First-time failure rate

AT 3 YEARS OLD0.7%

Overall first-time failure rate.

AT FLEET YEARS OLD12.0%

All electric cars in the data.

The Toyota BZ4X fails 0.7% of first-time inspections. Tyres cause 100.0% of its failures.

FIGURE 2 // TYRE SECTION1 certificates in 2024

The tyre that wears from the inside

Tyres take 100.0% of the defects that fail this car, 4.2× the share seen on petrol and diesel cars of the same age. The most common item in that group is "Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements", recorded 1 times in 2024.

1.6 mm legal minimumTYRE TREAD DEPTH NOT IN AC1 CERTIFICATES
SECTION // TYRES CONCENTRATION

Where it concentrates

The BZ4X stays under the petrol fleet at every age we can measure. What it does fail on is unusually concentrated.

DEFECT CONCENTRATION IN FAILED TESTS:
BZ4X tyres share100.0%
Wider fleet average23.7%

The single most common item on a BZ4X certificate is "Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements", recorded 1 times.

Source: DVSA MOT defect items, 2024 test year.
Buyer's protocolPre-purchase checklist

What to check

Check tyre age and tread across the full width, inner edge included. Electric cars wear tyres faster; a cheap mismatched set on a used car tells you how it was run. Ask for the full MOT history by registration on the free DVSA service: advisories are next year's failures.

3 inspection points:
Tyre inner-edge wear and age
Free DVSA MOT history check
FIGURE 3 // FAILURE RATE BY AGEvs petrol, diesel and all electric cars

    Points hidden where fewer than 50 cars of that age were tested. Dashed lines are the same-age petrol and diesel fleets.

    Data sheet
    Inspections
    138
    Passed
    137
    Failed
    1
    Passed after repair
    0
    Failure rate
    0.7% (all EV 12.0%)
    Average age
    0.0 years
    Top cause
    Tyres 100.0%
    TABLE 1 // WHAT FAILS, BY SYSTEMshare of failing defects
    SystemThis car (mark = petrol/diesel)Sharevs fleet
    Tyres
    100.0% 4.2× more
    Suspension
    0.0% in line
    Brakes
    0.0% in line
    Visibility
    0.0% in line
    Lighting
    0.0% in line
    Steering
    0.0% in line
    Body
    0.0% in line
    TABLE 2 // TOP DEFECTS ON THE CERTIFICATE
    1. Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements1

    Wording as printed by the tester, from the DVSA inspection manual.

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    Where it holds up
    • Suspension fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (0.0% of defects vs 13.6%)
    • Brakes fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (0.0% of defects vs 18.7%)
    • Visibility fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (0.0% of defects vs 11.9%)
    • Lighting fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (0.0% of defects vs 16.5%)
    Where it fails
    • Tyres take a bigger share of failures than on the wider fleet (100.0% vs 23.7%)
    VERSIONS SEEN IN THE TESTSas recorded
    • BZ4X PURE54
    • BZ4X MOTION50
    • BZ4X VISION13
    • BZ4X PREMIERE EDITION AWD11
    • BZ4X VISION AWD5
    • BZ4X MOTION AWD5
    OWNER REPORTS // MATCHED TO RECORDED DEFECTS0 read · 0 matched
    No owner discussion has been matched to this car's recorded defects yet. Reports are re-collected every quarter; the figures on this page do not depend on them.

    Summaries written by us, never quotes; every entry links to its source. Owner reports have no denominator and never feed the failure rate.

    Three things the data shows
    • 138 inspections in 2024 make this one of the adequately-documented electric cars in the data.
    • Tyres take 4.2× the share of failures they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.
    • It ranks 1 of 83 electric cars by first-time failure rate.
    LIMITS // WHAT THE INSPECTION DOES NOT TELL YOU

    No battery health, no motor, no charging performance. The test covers brakes, suspension, steering, tyres, lights, visibility and structure. A car with a badly degraded battery passes as long as it stops and steers. Read this page as evidence about the chassis, not the powertrain. Cars are tested from their third year, so the newest model years are missing; every figure carries its sample size for that reason. Full methodology.

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    By What Wears Out editorial team. Data: DVSA anonymised MOT tests, 2024 test year, OGL v3.0. Updated .
    MethodologyToyota BZ4X dossier