Where RAV you been?
TOYOTA FINALLY UNVEILS ANOTHER PHEV – AND IT’S AN SUV
For a company that was at the forefront of hybrids and pretty much invented them with its Prius, Toyota has taken a long time to produce another plug-in hybrid.
The Prius has been available as a PHEV for a few years but it wasn’t a feature on any of Toyota’s other cars. That changes with this, the RAV4 PHEV.
Short for Recreational Activity Vehicle, it was launched in 1994 and has become the world’s best-selling SUV. One of my neighbours has one of the first, a three-door, as all were in the 90s.
Such a simple design and a very affordable car when new. Neither of those adjectives apply to the RAV4 we’re testing today.
First thing to note about the plug-in RAV4 is it’s always running in four-wheel drive regardless of whether it’s moving under petrol power or electric.
The internal combustion engine is a naturally aspirated four-cylinder petrol displacing 2,487cc that’s the same unit used in the mild-hybrid RAV4 except it’s a bit less powerful.
At the front is a 180bhp electric motor and at the back another motor with 54bhp. Total system power available is an impressive 302bhp. You’ve a top speed of 112mph and 84mph in EV mode.
Hammer up the motorway in EV mode and you’ll soon chomp through the 18.1kWh battery’s energy and matching Toyota’s claimed EV range of 46 miles will be impossible. Drive carefully on rural roads where PHEVs are most efficient and you should manage a figure with a four in front of it. The official combined WLTP fuel consumption is the usual meaningless, misleading set of numbers which in the RAV4’s case is 282.5mpg.
That’s only achievable if you recharge the car religiously so the petrol engine is rarely used.
It’ll take just over seven hours on a domestic socket to charge and two-and-a half on a wallbox. Although the RAV4 PHEV has 302bhp and does 0-62mph in 6.0sec, don’t think of it as a sports car. It’s more part-time dragster as you use its huge grunt to blast you down a sliproad and on to the motorway.
What the power gives you, in particular the electric motors, is a smoother and more relaxed drive than in the hybrid versions.
Those, like this one, use a CVT automatic gearbox that allows the engine revs to rise and drop annoyingly as you accelerate. With the torque of the electric motors this doesn’t happen in the PHEV RAV, making for a more relaxed and quieter drive.
It always starts off in E-Mode and there’s a button you press if you want to go into silent mode. So simple compared to other systems (particularly those by Volkswagen Group) where you have to delve into the infotainment system to select a mode. Avoid running out of battery power or you’ll be reliant upon a not-very-grunty petrol engine to drag a nearly two-tonne car.
The RAV4 is spacious with lots of room in the back for adults. You’d think it sits seven people but five is your lot. The boot is large, despite the lithium-ion battery robbing 60 litres of space, bringing the seats-up volume down to 520 litres from the hybrid’s 580. The tailgate is electrically operated but takes so long, your food shopping will be past its sell-by date by the time it’s shut.
Plug-in hybrids make the most sense to company car users who can take advantage of the low rate of benefit-in-kind tax. Private buyers might not find our test car’s £47,395 on-the-road price so easy to stomach, and our car is in Dynamic spec; Dynamic Premium costs a fruitier £50,895. A lot for a Toyota, even if it does have a panoramic sunroof and impressive JBL sound system.
It’s a Toyota so unlikely to ever go wrong, but the cabin plastics and average quality infotainment screen graphics are a bit out of place in a car costing this much.
There is an alternative. We tested the Suzuki Swace which is actually a Toyota Corolla estate with Suzuki badges – the result of a tie-up between the two. So is the Suzuki Across, as it’s a RAV4 PHEV with different badges. A different price, too, at £45,599.
The tailgate takes so long your food shopping will be past its sell-by dater