There’s an idiosyncratic new trend emerging among Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs): aircraft-style “yoke” steering wheels, as fitted to the Tesla Model S Plaid and now also confirmed as an option for Toyota’s first mass-market BEV, the bZ4X (above).
Yokes are quite good for planes, which require very little lateral “steering” but also need a firm hand for fore-aft movement; but do they really work in cars?
The Model S Plaid (above) has copped a flair bit of flack in reviews overseas because it still has a fixed steering mechanism with 2.3 turns lock-to-lock (over 300 degrees of movement), meaning you have to change hand position quite a bit in low-speed manoeuvres or tight corners. That’s awkward with a yoke shape, especially when your car is also scary fast.
So why have it? It would be absurd to suggest that a carmaker run as an autocracy where the boss is obsessed with 1980s popular culture could produce a production vehicle with the same steering controls as KITT from the television series Knight Rider. So we won’t suggest that. Elon Musk is probably quite busy with his James Bond Lotus Esprit Submarine anyway.
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We don’t know whether anybody at Toyota likes Knight Rider. But it does seem like the bZ4X steering system advances the idea a little more.
To be launched in China but then rolled out in other markets after 2022, the bZ4X yoke is integrated into a steer-by-wire system; the ratio will change according to the speed and driving situation. Maximum rotation is just 150 degrees, which means you’ll hardly ever have to move hand position. And of course you’ll look so cool.
One car company can make a difference (cue theme music). But it might take a bigger one to make things work.