Featured RAV4 Plug-in Coming In 2020 (Page 4 for deets)

What is the monetary value of OTA updates for the life of the vehicle? For some, they are worth $0. For some, much more. Different for everyone.

 

Definite value there but OTOH Tesla has a proven track record of "promising" one thing and later doing another so who's to say Tesla won't start charging for updates?

 

That explains the high stock price.

Bob Wilson

 

Big updates probably will cost. But little refinements and new features will likely never be monetized. Then again, if someone has that much mistrust in Tesla, they likely aren't going to buy one anyway.

 

Explain to me the moonroof attraction. Especially when you may have a choice between it and the adaptive headlights.

I'll grant Toronto isn't North Carolina in temperature or perhaps sunlight exposure. I have a sunroof but never open it and wish it wasn't there for safety, HVAC and cost reasons.

 

IIRC, the Model Y OTA updates now number 20. Some might be justified at required but surely others are clever marketing ploys to make a fan boy out of every owner. How many times do you come into work and hear about the XYZ car as opposed to the Tesla owner who can't wait to tell you about his new app or feature.

 

Rarely have I seen a post so right and so wrong at the same time.

 

I agree - I'd choose not to have it, if that were an option.

 

I had a moonroof on my ‘96 Integra before the Prius was around, and I loved it and used it all the time (in the summer). Sort of a compromise from an impractical convertible. It really lightens up the interior and it is great on the highway as you can open it to get some nice fresh air, without the strong blowing air, and less wind noise. Just my opinion, to each their own.

Not really sure how this relates to adaptive headlights?

 

On the Rav4 hybrid I bought in 2019 you could get a sunroof and either a moon-roof made in Japan or the adaptive headlights made in Canada. Not both. I opted for safety. And since I never even use the sunroof, the "loss" of the moon-roof option was no real loss.

 

Ah, I see. I never realized Adaptive Headlights were an option on these vehicles... at risk of going OT, do you find them very effective?

I have never tried Adaptive headlights, but I understand it helps to illuminate the road better when cornering, and I figure it is most helpful if you drive a lot in non-lit areas, which is less critical for me personally since am mostly in urban/suburban areas, but again will be highly variable based of each situation...

 

Apparently for the XSE RAV4 Prime you get both the moonroof (which is standard) and as an option, adaptive headlights (called Adaptive Front Lighting System - AFS). Maybe you can’t combine the AFS option with the Premium Package on the XSE, which happens to have a panoramic moonroof.

We use the moonroof on my wife’s NX300h a lot during summer. Opening the rear part of it and along with the ventilated seats we can skip the A/C for most of the season. She loves it because opening that up doesn’t mess up her hair like opening a window can. Lifting the rear part of the moonroof also doesn’t produce as much noise as opening a window. Using that is probably one of the reasons she got over 39 mpg on one of her tanks.


Unsupervised!

 

A simple answer, yes. Go look at the IIHS web site and compare the beam patterns of the lights with and without adaptive. Particularly, on the inside of a curve just off the roadway.

 

The IIHS.org site on its results page shows the patterns made by the adaptive headlights when making turns. Yes I do find it nice.

 

Toyota Press Release - shows pricing, trim, etc - Get the First-Ever 2021 RAV4 Prime Starting at Under $40K MSRP - Toyota USA Newsroom

Pros to me, compared to Prius Prime - AWD, 40 miles on a charge vs 25
Cons to me - worse on gas (I'm guessing 40 mpg vs an easy 55 mpg in the PP?), significantly more expensive for not much more interior room, availability

 

The 1500W power outlet and 6.6kW charging options would be nice, but once you select the XSE trim and premium package with those features, it gets to be a ridiculously expensive car (even with tax credits). $47,185 for a RAV4! That is luxury car pricing.

With a 3.3kW charger on the Prius Prime, it's almost never worth stopping on a drive to charge. The amount of energy I lose going even a small amount out of my way exceeds the amount I can charge before I exhaust my patience for wasting time at the charger. But at 6.6kW I think it would be just fast enough that a quick 10 minute stop would be enough to make the difference between making it to your destination in EV mode instead of on gas.

6.6kW also helps with those annoying charging stations that bill by the minute instead of by kWh. The Prius Prime effectively pays double for the same energy as faster charging cars at those stations.

Of course the RAV4 Prime will also negatively offset the faster charging with a lower EV efficiency.

 

3.3 kW will surprise you. My quick 10-minute stops to run into the grocery store for a coffee delivers a little over 0.5 kWh of electricity... more than enough to make it home without gas.

 

None of the places I frequent have convenient chargers. A couple places have them 1/4-1/2 mile away, but it's not worth the long walk (carrying my groceries or whatever) for a tiny amount of charge.

There's one free charging station roughly on my way home, but it's off the highway, and driving to it and getting back up to highway speed uses more than 0.5 kWh.

There's a charger at work, and if I didn't get a chance to charge during the day for whatever reason, it's not worth sitting there and waiting to get enough charge to make it home. For example in the winter I need on average 1 kWh extra to make it home. I'm not going to sit there for 20 minutes (at 3.3kW) and wait for that, but 10 minutes (at 6.6kW) might be worth it.

Finally there's the traction battery cooler. If that wants to run (which it does most of the summer after I've been driving), it's a 30 minute cycle and in that time I net around 4% charge (0.25kWh) during the 30 minutes. It's OK to stop it early, but that would result in even less charge. It's also possible to skip it, but that's a bad idea for the health of the battery.

The situations where 0.5 kWh makes the difference between staying in EV mode or not, and where a charger is not too far out of the way, and where I have at least 10 minutes to waste, are very rare.