Can anyone please suggest is it worth buying the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid keeping in mind their is subsequent wait for the car i.e about 6-8 months or one should consider buying the electric car as they are the way to go from future prospective. Any help will be greatly appreciated
RAV4 Hybrid or Electric Car
Sunnyoz on 20/11/2021 - 16:28
Last edited 04/12/2021 - 18:33 by 1 other user
Last edited 04/12/2021 - 18:33 by 1 other user
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Buy a PHEV and have the best of both a hybrid AND an EV.
It's an EV for all your work commute, shopping and school/sport runs, ICE for when you want to take it outside of its EV range.
If only the RAV4 Prime was coming to Australia
I don't know why we don't have more Toyota PHEV options here… Because of Australia's lack of restrictions on polluting vehicles and no incentives for cleaner vehicles, and so the politicians can protect their big fuel and big coal backers, we've basically become the ICE dumping ground for the rest of the world.
I don't know why we don't have more Toyota PHEV options here
I was told that Toyota looked into the Prime and it would've had to sell for like $20k over the Cruiser, so didn't bother
@spackbace: Be that as it may, the government certainly isn’t helping us get more efficient vehicles.
@Euphemistic: It's almost like they get money from us using petrol… 😉
Yeah about the only incentive is a lighter LCT threshold on hybrid/economical cars, but that's only around $10k higher
Is budget a consideration? If money is no object and you don’t regularly travel long distance or are prepared to change your long distance driving habits to suit charge stops go EV.
is it worth buying
/psychic mode on
From your perspective, Yes.
Do you want to carry a kayak?
I've got the MG HS PHEV, which is brilliant.
I've got pure electric power for my commute (really cheap) as well as fuel for longer trips, without the range anxiety of a pure EV. All the luxury trimmings including the 360 degree camera, powered tailgate, panoramic sunroof etc as well as towing.
$46k and available immediately, which made a big difference to my decision
We received our new RAV4 hybrid a couple of months ago, TBH, we're not loving it. I'd probably go with something else in retrospect. We're not finding it as efficient as expected (7.3L/100Km) with the first 1000km or so, the infotainment unit is terrible (very laggy), I find the smart driving features (adaptive cruise/lane assist etc) are significantly inferior to our Hyundai i30, which is our secondary car.
It's not 100% regret, but in retrospect, I'd be putting my money elsewhere.
Not sure how you're getting such high economy. Our demo gets mid-5s. Hell even the demo Kluger gets mid-6s. Most reviews get similar numbers to us on the RAV4
One of the drivers of yours has a very heavy right foot
We are wondering if it's the fact it hadn't had a good drive because of lockdowns and hadn't charged the hybrid system properly, and aware that it's a fair bit higher than reviews.
It's definitely not a heavy right foot problem.
I find even at idle the petrol engine is running a lot, so we're still not confident that it's not faulty.
Should only take till around 5mins down the road and the hybrid battery will be charged up enough, depending on the amount you brake/decelerate.
How often is it driven and what sort of distances?
@spackbace: The hybrid battery looks like it is charged between 20-60% most of the time. It is driven most days, and most trips are within 2.5km of home, but now it's getting more frequent suburban trips up to about 10km. I'll start driving to the office this week which is about 23km each way. So I'll reset the trip monitor and see if it improves now that it will be getting longer drives.
You might have faulty HV battery, it happens from time to time. Definitely get it checked, ours is sitting on 5.4L/100km over the 10,000km we’ve had it.
Go easy on the pedal… I get a max of 5.6L/100km while driving within the suburbs and 4.6-4.8L/100km on the highway. I agree the infotainment system feels dated but I just have Android auto connected all the time and that looks and works fine. Adaptive cruise and lane assist works flawlessly for me.
I'd be putting my money elsewhere.
What would you rather get?
I'd probably go for one of the new Hyundai Tucson's right now. The in-laws have it and I definitely like it more. I discounted it originally as it wasn't hybrid and I'll be doing a fair bit of city driving in my current job.
I see. I borrowed a friend's and I had a long test drive. Sadly I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. The ride was good and highway noises weren't too bad. I was quite happy with the 5.xL/100km. However, I can't stand the rubber and plastic inside. I dont expect hard plastics hitting against the knees when it's a 50k car.
Current owner of a 2019 (MY20) Outlander PHEV. I threw a comment in on Switchblade88's post a little while back about plug-in hybrids.
My driving activity has since changed with no highway stuff during weekdays now, electric only with a 40km round trip for work. Still charging during solar generation and driving to work and back doing nightshift. Still doing 2-4 climbs up Tamborine Mountain and back each weekend. I was averaging 4-5L/100km per week, that figure has now dropped to 2-3L/100km.
Looking to upgrade soon. Mits has recently released the Eclipse Cross PHEV, same drivetrain as current Outlander PHEV. New Outlander PHEV due early next year, also with same drivetrain but bigger HV battery. Decisions, decisions…
Take a look at the Mitsys, OP. I used to work in Toyota dealerships for many years and used to swear by Toyota hybrids. But they need plug-ins badly here.
They need to release a Pajero PHEV. The market really needs bigger EV options. An EV Ute would be great too.
It’s very frustrating to watch these options becoming available overseas but not here.
Considering you can't get much in the way of a mid-sized EV SUV right now, what car would you plan to get if it wasn't the RAV4?
Do you have charging facilities at work?
Planning on going on longer trips?