Toyota RAV4 continues to be a top seller
The 2019 model is an all-but-guaranteed success, not only for Toyota but for Ontario town
About 22 years ago, an odd little jacked-up hatchback/ wagon thingy trundled onto the scene and got everyone scratching their noggins. Was it a car? Was it a truck? And what does RAV4 mean, anyway?
No one could have guessed that Toyota’s four-cylinder “Recreational Activity Vehicle with four-wheel drive,” being the first SUV built on a passenger-car platform, would spawn a whole new vehicular segment, one that would eventually usurp the hallowed fourdoor sedan as the most popular form of family transport.
Yes, folks, the compact crossover, cute ute or whatever you want to call it, has accomplished what Dr. Evil could not: it has taken over the world. And the king of these, more than two decades after the first Toyota RAV4 arrived, is — drum roll, please — the RAV4. In the big picture of U.S. sales, it’s the best-selling non-pickup passenger vehicle, trumping its many competitors, along with all other SUVs and cars.
So, to say the RAV4 is important to Toyota could be the mother of all understatements. As would be saying the RAV4 is important to the Ontario auto industry. In 2008, Toyota built a plant in Woodstock solely for the production of the RAV4, and since then, nearly two million have sprung forth from its doors. Employing about 4,000 workers, this Canadian facility produces all the RAV4s for the North American market.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) has just switched the Woodstock plant over to produce the all-new fifth-generation RAV4 that rides on the automaker’s fresh TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture) chassis. And so, camera in hand and safety goggles affixed, I am touring this 1.8-million-square-foot facility to see the early stages of 2019 RAV4 production.
Amazingly, the plant was only down for four days while contractors feverishly installed the remaining machinery and systems required to piece together the 2019 RAV4, which has 25 per cent more parts than the outgoing model.
As an example of how cars are getting inherently more complex, the new and old RAV4 wiring harnesses are displayed side by side, with the 2019 version having 124 more contact points.
Only two weeks after the switchover, TMMC Woodstock was running at about a quarter of its capacity. Ramping up is a gradual process, and it will be a few months before it is up to speed, which in this case means a RAV4 born every 60 seconds. Running two eight-hour shifts, and counting for breaks, that’s more than 900 RAVs per day to feed the hungry market. The hybrid version will come on line in the spring.
Still, it hardly feels like a leisurely pace in here. The crossovers move along the assembly line, with parts being delivered by an army of robotic AGVs (automated guided vehicles) that run up and down the lanes, pulling trolleys loaded with various bits. And like the Seven Dwarfs, they whistle while they work, or more specifically, they play a cheery digitized ditty.
Apparently, each department has its signature tune, and within these are variations that signal when the AGV is arriving, leaving, or if there is a problem.
New to this line are robotic digital inspection cameras: At one station they dart about on long arms, peering into hard-to-access spots as assembled dash panels roll by. The images are digitally examined in real time, and if a flaw is spotted, the problem is addressed.
In this time of GM’s woes in Oshawa, tariff threats and general uncertainty in the manufacturing sector, it seems to be business as usual at TMMC. And business is good … at least, for the RAV4. Toyota optimistically predicts more market penetration with this 2019 model that broadens its appeal with chunky styling, vastly improved interior quality, better road manners and a more diverse lineup that includes a new “rugged” Trail version and an upcoming, performance-oriented XSE hybrid. Later in the year, even the TMMC Cambridge plant will switch its Corolla production to RAV4.
“Even with the total volume (of the RAV4) going up, the hybrid volume is probably going to double,” Toyota Canada president Larry Hutchinson says. “We’re running about 12 per cent hybrid right now, and we’ll be up into the 20s.”
When asked about Toyota’s future plans for electrification, Hutchinson says hybrids play the biggest role, but fuel-cell vehicles will come eventually.
“We have our own carbon-reduction plan we call a 2050 Zero Carbon Plan, and we think the most efficient way to do that is with hybrid and then plug-in hybrid,” he says. “Long, long, long term, we believe in fuel cell. There’s also a role for full battery electric, but we think hybrid can give us 95 per cent of what we need for our target.”
With that, I depart TMMC in a 2019 RAV4. While the outgoing model was a poster child for Toyota’s bland and inoffensive competence in building comfortable and functional appliances, this new version has a bolder outlook on life. The two-tone cabin is a design and ergonomic success, with lots of soft touch points and storage. The benefits of the new stiffer platform and redesigned rear suspension are immediately apparent. The 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine now has more power — up 27 horsepower, to 203 — but acceleration is so-so and the engine gets a tad noisy when pressed.
That aside, this Ontario-built 2019 Toyota RAV4 is so much better than the last one, and its continued success is all but guaranteed.