The Toyota RAV4 gets a hybrid powertrain for the first time, and AutoblogGreen editor Sebastian Blanco gets to test near Los Angeles in the latest Daily Driver.
TranscriptSEBASTIAN BLANCO: Hello everyone, Sebastian Blanco here from Autoblog and Autoblog Green coming to you today from a 2016 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. The RAV4 Hybrid comes with a 2.5 liter Atkinson engine and two electric motors, a high torque electric motor in the front, there's a separate smaller electric motor in the back. So this does have electronically controlled all wheel drive for when you need it. Which is the nice thing to have in a little small SUV like this. Toyota says it estimates the RAV4 Hybrid will get 34 miles per gallon in the city, 31 on the highway, and 33 combined. That compares to 26 in the front wheel drive model, and 25 in the all wheel drive version of the 2016 RAV4.
The Hybrid will come in two trim levels, the sort of base version that XLE, which starts at $28,370. Or the one that I'm driving right now, which is the Limited, and that one is $33,610. Again, those compared to the base RAV4, the gas powered RAV4, which starts at $24,350. So for an extra $4,020, to be precise, you can jump up into a hybrid version. The RAV4 Hybrid does come with three drive modes. That will be familiar to anyone who has driven a recent Toyota or Lexus hybrid. It's got EV, eco and sport.
I don't really know why Toyota insists on putting EV modes into their non plug-in hybrids. The EV mode in this car goes up to about 25 miles per hour, and if you drive very carefully it can go up to 0.6 miles. That's not really of any benefit, I think you get those same features from just letting the car operate in that mode under those parameters without having an EV button. And then whenever you exceed it, the little screen pops up and says, oh, you've exceeded the EV capabilities, or whatever it says. It almost seems, if you want to get a little bit into the meta issue surrounding Toyota and electric vehicles, that they enjoy telling their drivers that the EV is not a very capable product every time you push that button. Basically it says right away, oh, we can't drive in EV mode.
So that's an interesting feature. They put it on a lot of their cars, not quite sure why it's there, but it's in the RAV4 Hybrid as well. Eco and sport, they're very similar. The only way you can tell that one is engaged-- the eco mode-- it just dials back the throttle a little bit as well as regulates the air conditioner use a bit more so that the whole system is more efficient. It's not a big difference at all. The car operates fairly similar in both modes.
What's nice about having a hybrid in this size of vehicle is that you've got two comfy rows of seats, lots of space. The total cubic feet for the passenger cargo is 100.7 cubic feet, which is a nice number for people. You can fit lots of stuff in here. Plenty of room for road trips, hauling kids around here and there. I found the RAV4 Hybrid quiet, comfortable, wouldn't say sporty or anything, even though it has a sport mode. But it definitely performs like I would expect a somewhat electrically powered small SUV to perform. So turning its high marks there. And I think for the category of drivers that Toyota is targeting here, this car will perform well. So for Autoblog and Autoblog Green, this is Sebastian Blanco signing off.
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