In MY 2026 all RAV4s are electrified, PHEV get 50 miles and CCS port

[ChasingCoral]

Why The New Toyota RAV4 Is Bigger News Than You Think
The hybrid-only RAV4 is a very big deal.
By: Tim Levin
May 21, at 6:52pm ET

Heading into 2025, I would’ve guessed that Tesla’s overhauled Model Ycrossover would have been this year’s biggest car launch—at least as far as this EV website is concerned. But Tesla’s momentum is fading, and it’s Toyota that just dropped the biggest bomb of the year so far.
The sixth-generation RAV4 SUV is here. Most importantly, every version of it has at least one electric motor. Just like before, Toyota will sell you a hybrid RAV4 and a plug-in hybrid one. But starting with the 2026 model year, the purely gas-powered RAV4 is no more.
This is a very big deal. The RAV4 consistently ranks as America’s most popular non-truck vehicle. Last year, Toyota sold some 475,000 RAV4s in this country, landing behind only the Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-Series trucks. With the flip of a switch, Toyota is about to get far more Americans to choose far cleaner vehicles. And most of them won’t even think twice about it.

It pulled the same trick with the Camry (America’s eighth-best-selling vehicle) last year. Switching that car to hybrid-only gave a massive boost to Toyota’s electrified car sales, which accounted for nearly half of its overall U.S. businesslast year. The RAV4 is a far bigger seller. And as a crossover, it’s the exact vehicle type that U.S. buyers want.

Toyota hasn’t shared fuel economy figures for the new models, so we’ll have to use last year’s stats to put this all into context. The 2025 non-hybrid RAV4 got 30 miles to the gallon. The hybrid got 39 mpg, so it uses about 25% less gas, all else being equal. If the nearly quarter-million annual non-hybrid RAV4 sales become hybrids, we’re talking about a whole lot less gasoline consumption over time.
And that’s not even accounting for the new RAV4 PHEV, which has a longer electric range than before (50 miles) and now comes with DC fast-charging capability. Those upgrades should make it more appealing, for one, and push owners to drive more miles on electricity alone.

This brings us to the elephant in the room: The RAV4 Hybrid still burns gas. No matter how popular or efficient hybrids get, they’re an insufficient long-term solution for our worsening climate crisis. Studies show that EVs are far cleaner to operate, and a no-gas future should be the ultimate goal.
But the transition to electric cars won’t happen overnight. Between the Republican trifecta’s gutting of pro-EV policies and general trepidation among mainstream car buyers, EV sales growth in America is looking rockier than ever. And if people are going to keep buying combustion vehicles no matter what for some time, those cars might as well sip gas instead of gulping it.

Contact the author: [email protected]

https://insideevs.com/news/760355/new-toyota-rav4-hybrid-only/

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[devmach-e]

I wish the article had mentioned that the Sienna minivan and the Venza crossover/wagon have been hybrid-only for a while. Yeah, they still burn gas, but a whole lot less than before. Waiting for the Highlander to go hybrid-only...

 

[Tosh]

PHEV Taco's

they would sell, fer sure ....

wish my Powerboost was a plug in

 

[macchiaz-o]

Doesn't seem like CCS on a 50 mile estimated PHEV is super useful. At least for now, DCFC is usually more expensive than gas (right?) and takes longer.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Doesn't seem like CCS on a 50 mile estimated PHEV is super useful. At least for now, DCFC is usually more expensive than gas (right?) and takes longer.

I had similar thoughts. I suspect its more of a marketing feature than something they anticipate will get much use...

 

[kltye]

Doesn't seem like CCS on a 50 mile estimated PHEV is super useful. At least for now, DCFC is usually more expensive than gas (right?) and takes longer.

It's not always about cost. My biggest problem is the charging speed - apparently it's 30 minutes for 10-80%. It has about a 22kWh battery pack (which is also a terrible mi/kWh rating). Quick math says that the max charging speed is ~15.4 kW, which is horrendously slow, considering it's a PHEV pack designed for high power input/output (as opposed to full EV packs usually optimized for energy density). They can easily double the charging speed; the classic Ioniq EV easily 2C charging for a lot of the charging curve.

On the upside, it has an 11kW onboard L2 charger, which should appease the crowd that thinks that PHEVs shouldn't charge at public L2 stations because of their usually meagre charging speeds there as well.

 

[MBCook]

Who wants CCS at this point anyway?

 

[Billyk24]

Guessing: 20kWh battery pack with an useable 15.5-current 2025 PHEV size is 18 with usable 14kWh. DCFC charging rate is maxed at 50kW.

 

[Mach1E]

Why The New Toyota RAV4 Is Bigger News Than You Think
The hybrid-only RAV4 is a very big deal.
By: Tim Levin
May 21, at 6:52pm ET

Heading into 2025, I would’ve guessed that Tesla’s overhauled Model Ycrossover would have been this year’s biggest car launch—at least as far as this EV website is concerned. But Tesla’s momentum is fading, and it’s Toyota that just dropped the biggest bomb of the year so far.
The sixth-generation RAV4 SUV is here. Most importantly, every version of it has at least one electric motor. Just like before, Toyota will sell you a hybrid RAV4 and a plug-in hybrid one. But starting with the 2026 model year, the purely gas-powered RAV4 is no more.
This is a very big deal. The RAV4 consistently ranks as America’s most popular non-truck vehicle. Last year, Toyota sold some 475,000 RAV4s in this country, landing behind only the Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-Series trucks. With the flip of a switch, Toyota is about to get far more Americans to choose far cleaner vehicles. And most of them won’t even think twice about it.

It pulled the same trick with the Camry (America’s eighth-best-selling vehicle) last year. Switching that car to hybrid-only gave a massive boost to Toyota’s electrified car sales, which accounted for nearly half of its overall U.S. businesslast year. The RAV4 is a far bigger seller. And as a crossover, it’s the exact vehicle type that U.S. buyers want.

Toyota hasn’t shared fuel economy figures for the new models, so we’ll have to use last year’s stats to put this all into context. The 2025 non-hybrid RAV4 got 30 miles to the gallon. The hybrid got 39 mpg, so it uses about 25% less gas, all else being equal. If the nearly quarter-million annual non-hybrid RAV4 sales become hybrids, we’re talking about a whole lot less gasoline consumption over time.
And that’s not even accounting for the new RAV4 PHEV, which has a longer electric range than before (50 miles) and now comes with DC fast-charging capability. Those upgrades should make it more appealing, for one, and push owners to drive more miles on electricity alone.

This brings us to the elephant in the room: The RAV4 Hybrid still burns gas. No matter how popular or efficient hybrids get, they’re an insufficient long-term solution for our worsening climate crisis. Studies show that EVs are far cleaner to operate, and a no-gas future should be the ultimate goal.
But the transition to electric cars won’t happen overnight. Between the Republican trifecta’s gutting of pro-EV policies and general trepidation among mainstream car buyers, EV sales growth in America is looking rockier than ever. And if people are going to keep buying combustion vehicles no matter what for some time, those cars might as well sip gas instead of gulping it.

Contact the author: [email protected]

https://insideevs.com/news/760355/new-toyota-rav4-hybrid-only/

It’ll be an interesting but possibly very risky business move for Toyota.

The RAV4 is their #1 selling vehicle by a large margin.

And about half the RAV4 sales are gas powered.

They are replacing a likely very nice profit margin and huge seller with a full EV that’ll likely cost more and lose money.

Oh, and it’s an EV in the most competitive slot in the EV market right now- the small to midsize crossover.

Bottom line- do I think they’ll replace the profit from the 230,000 or so gas powered RAV4s they sell currently per year with a full EV model? Nope. Especially since they only sold 18,000 Toyota BZ4X last year.

 

[Space_Pony]

It’ll be an interesting but possibly very risky business move for Toyota.

The RAV4 is their #1 selling vehicle by a large margin.

And about half the RAV4 sales are gas powered.

They are replacing a likely very nice profit margin and huge seller with a full EV that’ll likely cost more and lose money.

Oh, and it’s an EV in the most competitive slot in the EV market right now- the small to midsize crossover.

Bottom line- do I think they’ll replace the profit from the 230,000 or so gas powered RAV4s they sell currently per year with a full EV model? Nope. Especially since they only sold 18,000 Toyota BZ4X last year.

Unless I missed something, they discussed hybrids not full EV's. The big issue I see is that the price will go up and there won't be a lower priced non-hybrid available. Nissan and Honda may pick up some sales in that class.

 

[devmach-e]

Unless I missed something, they discussed hybrids not full EV's. The big issue I see is that the price will go up and there won't be a lower priced non-hybrid available. Nissan and Honda may pick up some sales in that class.

Currently there’s only a ~$1500 delta between the gas-only and hybrid models when you consider that the hybrid comes standard with AWD, which is a $1400 option for the gas only version. But yeah, otherwise ithe hybrids are up to $3000 more expensive. But for a vehicle that starts at just under $30K, an extra $3K isn’t a huge increase.

 

[Maquis]

If you’re a Ford owner using the Ford Charge Station Pro, this will be the only PHEV you can simply plug in at home using your existing EVSE without some kind of hack.

 

[Mach1E]

Currently there’s only a ~$1500 delta between the gas-only and hybrid models when you consider that the hybrid comes standard with AWD, which is a $1400 option for the gas only version. But yeah, otherwise ithe hybrids are up to $3000 more expensive. But for a vehicle that starts at just under $30K, an extra $3K isn’t a huge increase.

Yeah, but still half of buyers picked the gas model in recent years.

I know Toyota makes a great hybrid, but people are still scared of the extra complication of hybrid systems.

On paper for $1400 it seems like a no-brainer. Until it breaks.

Either way, getting rid of your most popular trim line of your most popular vehicle seems like a bad business move.

We shall see if they still sell half a million of these in 2026.

 

[Mach1E]

Unless I missed something, they discussed hybrids not full EV's. The big issue I see is that the price will go up and there won't be a lower priced non-hybrid available. Nissan and Honda may pick up some sales in that class.

I re-read it and yeah I think you’re right, no EV.

I think that’s even worse to drop a model with nothing to replace it. Even if they just rebrand the stupidly named BZ4X to a RAV4 it would help sales.

 

[WR41TH]

Doesn't seem like CCS on a 50 mile estimated PHEV is super useful. At least for now, DCFC is usually more expensive than gas (right?) and takes longer.

50 miles (probably closer to 40 all things considered) would last me 2 days commuting to work. Overnight charging, two or three times a week wouldn't be overly detrimental.

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