Toyota makes history with its new SUV

Maggie Barry Europeans drive faster than motorists in other parts of the world.

I know, for example, in Japan, motorists are far more tentative drivers than we are.

And that is interesting because I am driving a Japanese car, the new Toyota RAV4, and it has specially developed brakes to cope with the need for speed experienced by Europeans.

As if to make the point, my co-driver puts his foot down on the gas and we fairly fly along the road.

This new RAV4 is like no other that has gone before and heralds a new era for Toyota. From now on, it will only be available in the UK as a hybrid model.

The future, ladies and gentlemen, has arrived.

The RAV4 is something of an icon, a much-loved SUV which has been around since 1994.

Indeed, this new model is the fifth generation and will be e available in either two-wheel drive e or four-wheel drive but never diesel, , with the public expected by a whopping majority to vote for the e versatile four-wheel model.

It looks completely different from m its predecessors too, with a softer nose and lines sweeping back to a far more sculpted rear with hints of Toyota’s luxury brand, Lexus. It is also wider and lower than the previous model but with greater ground clearance. There are four trim levels: Icon, Design – expected to be the most popular – and the top-of-the-range Excel and Dynamic. All come with rear sensors and cameras and Toyota’s latest version of its Safety Sense, which includes new features such as night pedestrian detection and cyclist detection. Inside Insi the RAV4 with the Dynamic Dyna trim, which I drove, the bblack synthetic leather seats are heated and trimmed with bblue stitching. There The is plenty of piano-black gloss and the centre console is clean with easily manipulated buttonsbutt and switches. It is eminently comfortable with lots of space and a large, class-leading clas 580-litre boot which whi is very easy to access, as I discovered, and the rear seats do that 60/40 split when needed.

But it is the hybrid powertrain which is really going to make drivers sit up. It is not a plug-in – you charge as you drive, a far less f iddly prospect than messing with wall boxes and sockets.

And it is powerful. It mates a 2.5-litre petrol engine to a 244-volt battery that drives two electric motors on each front wheel and one on the rear axle in the 4x4, making for a punchy, exciting drive whether you have opted for the two-wheel or all-wheel drive.

I drove them both and found the front- wheel drive more than adequate, with incredibly positive steering.

But it is in four-wheel drive that the new RAV4 comes into its own. It is beautifully balanced on the road, fast and powerful round corners.

This version comes with Trail mode, which allows you to go off-roading with abandon as it will send traction to the wheels that need it, even when the fourth is off the ground.

Toyota are experts in hybrids and the new RAV4 demonstrates exactly why.