Now who would have thought that being in the presence of driving a toyota rav4 at any time in the wrestlers twenty plus year history that it would be like being in the presence and driving an automotive celebrity that’s because this is not just a regular rav4 no this is the 2021 rav4 prime the plug-in hybrid version the one that toyota’s been touting since its
Introduction the one that everyone wants to drive the one that everyone loves um to be frank uh everyone every review that you’ve read that says that this thing is quite impressive in every respect well they’re all right i am confirming that right now now i’ve driven all the other versions of the rav4 and well this is obviously not the least expensive but it
Certainly is one of the most interesting now i won’t go over all the other versions however i can tell you the base price for the rav4 prime is 38 100 in the us 44 990 in canada meaning that it is eligible for all federal and provincial rebates which in quebec can be a considerable discount but this is not a regular base sp rav4 prime though it’s which means
That the basic 8 inch screen and 18 inch wheels and all that are enhanced to these 19-inch wheels a 9-inch screen black top and a bunch of other features including a power hatch now it is priced in the us at 41 425 in canada 51 590 um a word on styling toyota somehow just figured a way to make it look even more powerful even more premium uh the gloss black the
Wheels the two-tone setup this uh lovely supersonic red also does a great deal to enhance the visual enchantment i know f4 right that this prime project okay so what’s important to know is that because of its larger battery which would be fitted under the load floor and the back seat well toyota’s managed to package it in such a way whereas this is now 33 and
Change cubic feet only down two cubic feet from the regular rav4 so that works out to like 950 liters versus about 1060 meters but it’s still you really can’t tell it’s wide it’s deep it’s tall it’s perfect now on the inside obviously it’s a rough four so there is loads of room uh good visibility out the windows because the greenhouse is big you can’t really
Squeeze a third person in there but but it doesn’t matter because everybody’s happy my family the other touches you know the the soft text leather is what you get with the xse and the two-tone job here all right so uh let’s get in start it up but you won’t hear the 2.5 liter cylinder four-cylinder engine go off because while i’m half-charged at this moment i’ve
Been driving for the last half an hour or so and well here we are there’s the nine-inch screen loading up what’s really important are these drive modes i’ll tell you a little bit more about them as we go about but essentially this is a no compromise rav4 uh you do get all your information here on a standard seven-inch display uh what else can i tell you there’s
Your heated steering wheel button fit and finish is great the visibility is fantastic the real important stuff happens from behind the steering wheel so let’s get down to the business of driving now the real difference between the regular rav4 hybrid and the rav4 prime is obviously all about the size of the battery said larger battery is capable of delivering
Up to 68 kilometers or 42 miles of pure ev driving um i guess i’ll note this now normally i would complain and say that plug-in hybrid vehicles are smoking mirrors total craw but that’s because up until recently and with only maybe one exception most phevs are limited to 30 to 40 kilometers of eevee range when it comes to 60 or in the case of this one close to
17 this is real world usable ev range i mean you can get to your average destination and come back on a single charge for most of these other phevs you get to where you want to go and you’ll not make it back unless you plug it in on electric power alone that’s only part of the story with the rav4 prime because uh although it still has a 2.5 liter four-cylinder
Engine the electric motors the one in the bag and the one in there with the cvt have been considerably tweaked if you will which means that output if you take the output of the rav4 hybrid system total system output is 219 horsepower this one has 302 horsepower which means that the rav4 prime is the second quickest vehicle in toyota canada’s lineup after the
Supra now that’s kind of nuts um the thing is that even though it can do zero to 100 kilometers an hour and six seconds or zero to 60 miles per hour in 5.7 seconds it doesn’t feel unbelievably fast you you can tweak that in a way by playing with the drive modes now currently i’m in auto ev and i still have 19 kilometers of eb range so i’ve essentially locked out
As much as possible access to the petrol engine so obviously acceleration isn’t as crazy but you can get up to well over 120 kilometers an hour 80 miles per hour in electric mode alone so so far i’ve been on the road for about 50 some odd kilometers and i have not touched the petrol engine indicated range was 66 when i left so so far rough calculation is i will
Manage to do that 66 perhaps even more mileage on that charge and believe me you i’m not driving like an old man i’m driving as i normally would now beyond that okay if you want to recharge the thing with that one of the advantages to the uh xse is that you have a 6.6 kilowatt onboard charger which means that you’ll only need like two and a half hours to fully
Recharge the battery on a 240 volt plug if you do it on a 110 120 household outlets uh it’ll take considerably longer than that but overnight you’ll have more than enough time to fully recharge the battery and get on your way in the morning as per the usual the rav4 prime is built on toyota’s excellent global platform which means that the ride quality the
Handling is for an suv in the segments okay this one is price here but in the price range is excellent even though this has a quote-unquote sport tuned suspension the ride is still relatively plush compliant smooth enjoyable steering response is okay there’s one thing because now this has an equivalent to regen braking brake pedal feel is kind of mushy and has
Various modes and switches to it when you get on the pedal easy it breaks easy but if you roll into it a little bit more there’s kind of a dead spots and then it mechanically if you will picks up i mean that’s something you usually easily get used to it’s nowhere near as bad as say the last volvo t8 product that i drove but still something maybe to keep in mind
Otherwise i mean heck this thing is is exactly as impressive as i expected it would be it’s it’s good fun to drive extremely versatile roomy quiet comfortable and speaking of quiet one of the biggest faults the rav4 has especially for the petrol versions or the non-hybrids is that that 2.5 liter engine is ridiculously loud now with the extra assistance from the
Electric motors and i noticed that in the hybrid the 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine is not exactly as challenging orally so that’s definitely a highlight one of many in fact for the rav4 prime do you get one uh the answer the short answer is absolutely if you can uh be patient enough otherwise eventually i’m assuming that availability will meet demand um in the
Meantime a rav4 hybrid the regular one is considerably less expensive not available with all the federal and provincial rebates but still very impressive overall this this is the the um the rav4 celebrity version and it’s good fun you
Transcribed from video
2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime Review By Motor Illustrated
