RAV4 hybrid coming?

My wife wants an SUV, while I'd prefer a Prius. My Prius was destroyed last week, so I'm looking for a new car. Since I wanted to wait for Gen IV, I thought instead of buying another Prius now, I could buy her a Rav 4 or something to replace her tiny Yaris, and then get a Prius 2016. I'd drive the Yaris in the meantime.

Then my wife sent me some articles mentioning a hybrid Rav 4 for 2016. However, as far as I can tell, these are bogus articles. If you do a Google search you'll find them, but to summarize, they are poorly written articles from no-name sites, which I suspect are just pages to generate hits, but with no verifiable information in them.

Has anyone seen any mention from a respectable source of a hybrid Rav 4 coming?

because if there is one, maybe I'd just get a crap used car for a year and then get a hybrid Rav 4 and a Prius Gen IV. But I suspect 2016 will still be same. Also, my understanding is the whole Rav 4 line won't get updated any time soon, since it was last updated recently.

EDIT:

It's official! The 2016 RAV4 hybrid will be shown on 2015-04-02 at the New York International Auto Show.

 

?? There is already a Rav 4 AWD. In fact, that's what we've been considering, esp. since there is a CAD$1500 off incentive right now. Or are you talking about the Prius?

Good point. BTW, I went to see the NX yesterday and it's nice, but it's also too expensive for my tastes. And I felt the RX (which has a lot of off-lease units available for sale) was bigger than we need.

 

Well, I wasn't aware of this, but Toyota to Discontinue Venza Crossover.

While this in itself doesn't mean anything, my guess is a lot more people would buy a RAV4 hybrid than a Venza, and the discontinuation of the Venza opens up a new price point that a hybrid RAV4 would fit in nicely.

I was thinking more on this, and this plan doesn't really make practical sense. Sure I could get a beater for year, but that means we'd have one beater and one sub-compact (Yaris). I wouldn't enjoy that very much, and my wife would probably hate me. Furthermore, that beater would still cost us money, money that could be put toward a new car.

So, even if a RAV4 did appear with hybrid soon, it probably wouldn't be soon enough. And even if it were soon enough, it'd be considerably more expensive than the LE AWD we're looking at, both for the hybrid itself and the likelihood it'd be spec'd with higher end features.

Right now Toyota Canada has some nice incentives on the non-base model 2015 RAV4s, with $1500 off, even though they're not advertising them. One dealer I called didn't even know the cash incentive on the RAV4 existed, but after I asked about it, they verified it does exist. (I think yesterday there was an even bigger discount, but it was on the 2014 IIRC.) With that, and the fact that past the first year, the RAV4 might be driven less than my next car (Gen IV Prius?), the fuel economy factor wouldn't be a deal killer in terms of cost, esp. with prices where they are now.

This way we have a nice new RAV4 now, along with the secondary Yaris, and then next year I trade-in the Yaris for a new Prius Gen IV... or maybe a Lexus hybrid sedan.

Mind you, we haven't even tried our child car seats in the RAV4 yet or test driven it yet either, so who knows...

 

I actually woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this. I've decided I'll likely wait actually... at least until the official Prius Gen IV announcement.

However, this does present a dilemma for me. What the heck am I going to do for a car in the interim? I saw a used Prius 2001 with 240000 km on it for sale for just a few thousand... Nah. Gotta think of something else.

BTW, speaking of incentives, they're really trying to get rid of the Venza quick. Toyota Canada is offering a $3000 cash incentive to buy that now defunct model.

 

I checked out the Prius v yesterday and it turns out it can't even fit my Britax car seat rear-facing. Strangely enough, it fits OK in the regular Prius, and even better in my old 2004 Prius. Yes, the Prius v has a huge cargo area in comparison to the others, but they for some reason designed it so it decreases rear leg room. It basically made the Prius v a complete non-starter for me, but that's OK because I didn't like it anyway. However, as mentioned elsewhere, I ended up buying a 2012 Prius plug-in. Definitely not what I was planning, but part of the reason was for the really nice options package, which would be quite expensive on a new Prius and which is not as common for the Prius used market. Yes, I succumbed to the upsell.

I found a dealership that immediately offered the RAV 4 to us for invoice + $300, and we'd get the $1500 rebate. My wife likes the car too, and it has ample space for rear-facing car seats. But as mentioned we're going to wait a while.

We'll probably still end up buying a RAV4, but not today, despite the amazing Toyota + dealer pricing right now.

I'm curious, how often has Toyota updated a vehicle line to hybrid in the middle of its yearly cycle? I guess you could call the Prius plug-in a mid-season update since it came out here in Canada in September, but IIRC we kinda knew about it before then, although I may be mis-remembering.

 

Actually I meant mid-season, as in mid-year, not mid-several-year-cycle.

What I meant by that is that the Toyota Prius Plug-in didn't show up until late 2012 , and then became the 2013 (as you informed me in the other thread). The regular 2012 Prius showed up long before the 2012 Plug-in.

Going back to the old brochures, the Canadian 2012 Prius family brochure made no mention of the Plug-in, but the 2013, 2014, and 2015 brochures all include the Plug-in.

 

Hmmm... In that case, based on precedent, that makes a RAV4 hybrid coming any time soon rather unlikely. That said, we'd be willing to wait for a mythical 2016 hybrid RAV4 model if the thing gets announced relatively soon for release by the end of 2015. Fingers crossed...

Or who knows, maybe they'll shock us and introduce the RAV4 EV here in Canada. Nah, I don't buy this either. My guess is such a vehicle would sell horribly here too, at least at expected price points.

 

Yeah I know, and they've also cancelled their relationship with Tesla too AFAIK.

Also, I myself would not buy one, even if they did come out with one. We're MUCH more interested in a hybrid, and we definitely don't want a Highlander. The RAV4 hybrid would be perfect for the wife. The Lexus NX hybrid is too pricey.

Personally I think a RAV4 hybrid would sell reasonably well actually. The size is good, and the price point is reasonable if it's in the $28000 - $30000 range for base. However, we'd probably buy something with AWD and an XLE type trim.