Rav 4 Plug-in to debut at Los Angeles Auto Show (November)

[FROSTYBALLS]

See https://blog.toyota.co.uk/rav4-plug-in

[Rav Rob]

Can't imagine where they squeezed a bigger Battery in, I bet the spare wheel will be gone. Would have been good for people like me with a company car had it been available sooner, I gave up a PHEV to take on my RAV as the Outlander didn't offer all that I wanted any more but I will be paying a lot more tax for the pleasure of my RAV. (but a lot less than a diesel other brand SUV!)

[PeteB]

3 hours ago, Rav Rob said:

Can't imagine where they squeezed a bigger battery in, I bet the spare wheel will be gone...

I think you're almost certainly right.  It's why I didn't get the original plug-in Prius, the second generation added lack of rear wiper to the list too.

[philip42h]

Bearing in mind the fact that I know nothing, and drive a diesel, I understand that Toyota use nickel-metal hydride batteries in their self charging hybrids ... and are, perhaps, considering the introduction of lithium-ion technology into the plug-in versions ... ?

[PeteB]

The Prius plug-in version, available since 2012, has always been LiON.  I doubt if forthcoming plug-ins will use anything less.

Some trim levels of Toyota Hybrids also use this technology in some countries, but not in the UK.

[MrBee]

It looks like this could be pretty interesting!

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motor-shows-la-motor-show/toyota-rav4-plug-hybrid-launched-302bhp-powertain

Looking forward for more details of UK release date and pricing.  On site suggested UK will be 2021.

[robo1]

It does have a space saver

[PeteB]

some more info here too:

 

[MrBee]

Looks really good, but I expect the list price will start at £45,000.

[duncerduncs]

11 hours ago, MrBee said:

Looks really good, but I expect the list price will start at £45,000.

Indeed, I would think that this is a 'halo' model in the range.  Still decent value when compared to a top of the range Outlander, just a shame that they won't offer a lower trim level (like Design or Icon).

[PeteB]

Not only that, if the list price is over £40,000, even by one penny, the annual road tax goes up by £455 over and above whatever rate the car attracts due to it's CO2 figure.

[duncerduncs]

As such, it will be better to lease the car as that cost is absorbed into your monthly cost.

It's amazing how many 'normal' cars are now hitting the £40k mark!

[Scottydog007]

With all the uncertainty of what the direction will eventually go, 'Full Electric' or 'Hybrid' or 'Chargeable Hybrid' , I feel car companies are asking too much of their customers to choose one direction.

Wouldn't be nice if the 2019 Hybrid could be easily modified into a 2020 chargeable hybrid? Though not a chance of happening.

I always loved diesel cars for many reasons and I'm disgusted how governments jumped on diesel-gate to rubbish diesel cars for good. I work closely with car manufacturers, these manufacturers had good answers for cleaning diesel engines to give good emissions, but these ideas will probably only go into lorries. Or may be not as I worked on a Battery project to turn lorries into electric, which looked as though this was going to be a winner.

I suppose we can thank diesel-gate for forcing hybrid and electric to be taken seriously.

I better not mention Hydrogen!

[IanML]

I think ICE hybrids (both types) are just a temporary stop-gap on the road to full electric, which will predominate as charging facilities multiply and Battery technology and costs improve.  For long distance use, I expect hydrogen fuel-cell to come into its own, and we may even see hybrid fuel-cell/battery models.

[PeteB]

17 hours ago, Scottydog007 said:

...Wouldn't be nice if the 2019 Hybrid could be easily modified into a 2020 chargeable hybrid? Though not a chance of happening...

Yes it would, and yes, not a chance!

It wouldn't come cheap though, even if it could happen:  I wanted a plug-in Hybrid ever since I had use of one 12 years ago - yes 12 years: the firm I worked for at the time, sent an 'ordinary' 2007 Gen 2 Prius to a firm that specialised in converting them to plug-in - they removed the standard HiMH Battery in inserted a larger LiON one with a controller to carefully manage it's temperature.  The boot was almost unchanged in size, apart from the loss of a storage area under the boot floor, and they even managed to leave the space saver under the floor.  It would do 40 miles on a charge, and I occasionally got 1,500 miles between tank fills.  The clever thing was it plugged into the standard HV Battery connected, and lied to the car that the Battery was full to bursting, to the unmodified Hybrid software tried to stay EV as much as possible to make some space for regen.

Downside, the conversion cost £8,000 then, and before they stopped doing conversions when the official Plug-in Prius arrived in 2012 the price had risen to £10,000.

If the Plug-in RAV4, when the UK spec is announced, has  the space saver in the boot like the one on display in the US show and has an optional Head Up Display like the Prius has had for 10 years, I could be tempted if I hadn't just bought the current model.

[HSDish]

Heard from my local Toyota dealer here in Sweden that the RAV4 PHEV will be avaliable in autumn 2020 in Sweden and price start at 420.000 SEK (about 33.7 GBP i think)

[MrBee]

51 minutes ago, HSDish said:

Heard from my local Toyota dealer here in Sweden that the RAV4 PHEV will be avaliable in autumn 2020 in Sweden and price start at 420.000 SEK (about 33.7 GBP i think)

Interesting information and good to see prices and dates are coming through.  However, for the UK I think it will be a lot more than this.  The current RAV4 Design AWD list price is over £34,000, so the plug-in is likely to be a sizable premium over this. 

And, as pointed out above, if it goes over £40,000 then it's subject to an extra £455 a tax annual tax.

[HSDish]

On 12/4/2019 at 6:34 PM, MrBee said:

Interesting information and good to see prices and dates are coming through.  However, for the UK I think it will be a lot more than this.  The current RAV4 Design AWD list price is over £34,000, so the plug-in is likely to be a sizable premium over this. 

And, as pointed out above, if it goes over £40,000 then it's subject to an extra £455 a tax annual tax.

I'm quite sure that the current (2019) RAV 4 AWD cost from about 27 GBP (lowest trim level) to 31 GBP (highest trim level) i Sweden

[HSDish]

Really looking forward to see this RAV 4 PHEV  IRL

Any more news

Let's just hope there wont be as loong delivery times as for RAV 4 2019