RAV4 Prime Real World Range

i would call dianne and run the scenario by her. at least she's a straight shooter

 

yup, that's the name of the game. i've taken to email and 'how much should i bring a check for?'

 

It's the dealers you have an issue with. Car companies straddled with them are limited in what actions they can take to discourage bad behavior. Toyota isn't seeing profit from market adjustments on the price tag.

 

Well, the perfect timing for selling your PP may be just about over now. Then again, that is a moot point anyway if you have to have a replacement car and can't find it n stock. I may go ahead and sell my 2021 PP now. I really don't need two cars, but the longer I wait, the more it will depreciate very rapidly.
Average Used Car Price Drops - Kelley Blue Book

 

Who'd want to be a dealer in the last year and a half. People driving less need less service and parts. Service technicians out sick or retiring. Fewer cars to sell. Cars they do have have missing advertised components. Soon they have to finance EV training for sales and service and charging stations. I notice my two nearest Toyota dealers both totally shut down their sales floor building for about a year while they were being redone to some new standard.

 

<hand raised>

 

... much higher margins on the new vehicles that are available, much higher used vehicle selling prices, less sales staff needed, almost no advertising expense needed, more customers making repairs on vehicles that they would have replaced in the past, easier ability to raise shop rates ...

 

I traded in my Prius Prime (Premium trim, 2017 model year) back in August to a RAV4 Prime XSE. During the warmer months, I averaged around 2.8-3.0 miles/kWh, which resulted in about 46 miles per charge. During the current cooler months, I'm averaging around 2.6-2.8 miles/kWh. The lowest I've seen my estimated range was around 41 miles.

Keep in mind my daily drive is about 16 miles on weekdays, mostly freeway at maximum speeds (75ish), so I deplete less than half the battery each day. I rarely use the ICE in this car, even on weekends unless I take a longer trip. Since I use the ICE so infrequently, I'll sometimes drive in HV mode.

It's a great car if you can find it! I have more of an EV mindset with this car than the Prius Prime, with the added benefit of much more power, acceleration, comfort, and utility use (it is an SUV!). Plus, as you mentioned, you get $7,500 federal tax credit (as of now), $750 California Clean Fuel Reward (instant rebate off of purchase price with participating dealers, it was $1,500 when I bought), $1,000 rebate from CVRP, plus other possible incentives from your local city or power company.

Feel free to ask my any other questions.

 

You should travel to East Coast. I just emailed a few dealers around here that are showing Rav4Prime in their inventory. All had them in stock or confirmed it is in transit. A few of them were already spoken for, but in general, if I drive down to any of those dealers today, I can drive off with a brand new Rav4Prime at MSPR. The problem for me is that none of them are offering trade-in value on my 2021 PP Ltd as high as DriveWay was offering just a few weeks ago, and not even close to what one Nissan dealer offered me for a Leaf S purchase.

And in the end, I would be paying ~$6.5K additional money into the car that will cost about twice as much operational cost as my current PP. If the Rav4Prime is larger and it can be the only car we keep, then it may make sense. But as a replacement for my PP used as a daily driver... it is not going to be very economical. And having basically the same hybrid system, I have a feeling the car is still going to be running an engine most of the winter using more gas than my current PP. That's not going to be very ecological...

 

Agreed. CA seems to have very complicated consumer laws. Out-of-state purchase of a car can get tricky.

Yeah, with my PP, I often wish I have AWD, more cargo space, and ground clearance. But that's when I drive PathfinderHybrid instead. But it cost much more to operate a larger SUV. We drive less than 8K miles/year on it. I am on track to drive ~9Kmiles/year on my current PP which is down from the pre-pandemic average of ~15Kmiles/yr but slightly higher than on my 2020 PP. If I get rid of my PP, then our PathHy will have to take ~17Kmiles/year of total drives. That's a lot of gas on a car that gets only 24mpg. Plus, the car is now 8 years old, it has started showing typical age-related problems. The operational cost is only going to increase.

 

Fyi, there are plenty of California buyers that have purchased out of state, so there's no issue there (some ship it home, others fly out and drive it home). You can also search the RAV4 Prime Reddit for the Excel allocation sheet which shows all RAV4 Primes destined to dealers in the US. Many people are jumping on this and reserving their Prime before it even ships with said dealers. There's also a Facebook RAV4 Prime group where people are sharing stories, tips, and some dealers even post unreserved Primes.

Definitely resources out there to help you make it happen if you're serious and put in the time!

 

What you could do is try and test drive around here, then purchase somewhere else. Longo is the only dealer I know in SoCal not charging an MSRP, but I heard the waitlist is at least 6 months (but that may be for the XSE?). You definitely have a better chance with the SE being MSRP, XSE has more bells and whistles so it's more likely to be marked up. I originally was looking at the SE, but after test driving it and realizing that model doesn't come with the SofTex, which I liked in my Prius Prime, I went for the XSE. I will say the RAV4 drives much smoother and is quieter inside the cabin than my 2017 Prius Prime.

Sounds like you've done your homework, so best of luck! And any questions, feel free to ask.

 

But have you calculated the taxes and insurance difference of those options? How does that change the economics?

 

They are included in the calculation. That's why the 2022 Rav4Prime SE with MSRP $43K will cost almost twice as much operational cost as my current 2021 PP Ltd with MSRP $35K. If only the fuel (gas and electricity) cost differences are compared, then it is only ~42% increase (38mpg vs 54mpg, 94mpge vs 133mpge). About a 50% hike in excise tax and insurance costs will make the annual operational cost double of the PP.