Rav4 EV sighting thread

Is there a list of Dealerships authorized to "Service" them in the US? Only found for sales.

 

I asked the guy that owns the one here what he's going to do for service. He said the dealers really don't want to deal with it, one even told him don't drive it onto the lot. He did find one that told him to bring it in. I asked him about going to a Tesla repair facility and he said Toyota doesn't allow it.

 

I saw one in white this morning during my park walk. the Asian dad took his grand daughter for a play in the park.
Briefly looked inside and the cabin is quite roomy. Dashboard design not bad. MFD at center top. Should be 16" alloy wheel. Nice. Most good is the HV battery is made by Tesla. And the car is assembled in Tesla plant, Fremont, CA.

 

The drivetrain is Tesla. The parts have Toyota/Tesla stickers on them.

 

The out of state dealers are not being paid for Toyota 24 month service. Toyota is trying hard to kill anyone from liking the Rav4ev.

 

Well, they can try, but it's not going to be easy not to like it.

 

Don't know if you are aware of the Rav4ev gateway (ie. hardware API between Tesla/Toyota) issues. That thing is going to kill anyone out of state driving one as it is buggy. There are instances of swapping out the gateway because it is getting errors with the EV motor. My Rav4ev got a few times complaining about the cruise control too. So expect more low QA issues with this car. Then there are reports of EV motor swapped already.

You can like it from a far, but until you own it as an "out-of-state" owner, you will not know the trouble. Almost like buying gray market cars from out of the country.... no warranty.

 

Don't know it it's true or applies, but when I checked 3 different Honda Dealerships locally (Texas) about Leasing the Fit EV I was told no. The reason given was training, parts and service. Could this be with the RAV4 EV? I still think it's just to appease the California zero emissions law.

 

Well, I guess the guy that has the one here in NJ is going to find out.

 

Some Rav4ev owners from Seattle found qualified tech at their local Toyota dealers. Funny thing is, Toyota let these techs certified to work on Rav4ev. So they got a go ahead from their dealers, and bought their cars. Only to find out later that their dealer will no longer service their car after first visit. They were informed that Toyota Cooperate will not reimbursed their service cost.

Check out the only rav4ev forum people are hanging out.... don't want to spell out since Priuschat site owners might not be happy.

 

Thanks for the heads up. More or less kills any interest I had buying an EV living in Texas. The MiEV is junk and the Leaf's range only leaves 12 miles with my commute, all things perfect. Charging stations exist at the airport, but availability and function is hit and miss. Tesla would be nice, but the State is fighting sales and you can still buy a modest house here for that money. Oh well.

 

The problem seems to have happened to the cars that were first sold. I haven't seen too many problems with the new ones

 

Thanks cwerdna. Interesting reads, but Lawyers/Lawmakers and opinions don't change the bottom line...limited choice "except some CARB states" with limited infrastructure. What Tesla has proposed sounds like a good start on paper (if it happens), but until the rest "really" get on board with a common solution, it's going to be a long wait for most of us. Available, affordable, reasonably dependable vehicles with unlimited range are what most consumers need/want. Car manufactures and energy suppliers require profit, or it does not happen.

I really did want to try the Fit EV, and was considering the RAV4 EV. Guess I will just have to settle for the 'Hybrid" Prius (for now) as my best solution.

 

Did I not say hardware API? Where did I say software API? Since it is not software only interface, that really sucks if there is incompatible issues found now.

The EV motor is a whole unit, if the grinding is similar to like BMW, you still have to replace the whole EV motor. This is American mechanics (not third world mechanics), they don't fix the problem, they swap out bad whole units. A few is still a lot considering only 1000-ish has been sold.

The warranty is there for out of state, sort of. If you read the contract, Toyota will only service the car from authorized dealerships, which is only in CA. So if the car is outside of CA, Toyota will charge you the towing cost (if you don't do it yourself) to get back to one of those "nearest" dealership. If you are in NJ, that is like $1k of shipping just to have Toyota look at it. So legally, they have statisfied their support requirement. Is it shady? For an owner myself, hella pissed.

 

Look out for the Kia Soul. It is supposed to come out next year with similar range and with CHAdeMo support, and then there is the Mercedes B series wagon (Tesla powertrain too). Or BMW i3. Don't know if any will play in Texas though.

 

My friends have a silver one and they love it! A couple days ago, another silver one was flying up Highway 17 from Los Gatos or Santa Cruz. It had a huge sticker on the back that looked like the Intel logo, but instead read "Tesla Inside!"

 

Hope the Tesla battery problem will not happen in Rav4. Tesla really need to reinforce the battery protection.
Just a hit the battery got short circuit and produce heat and burn. Sad happening.

 

I will try to steer away from tow hitches and giant metal debris