New Car: 2013 Toyota RAV4 EV

Toyota has revealed its second all-electric RAV4 SUV, and it is the result of a partnership between the Japanese automaker and Tesla Motors. The original electrified RAV4 was introduced in California in 1997 for fleets, and a small number eventually made their way to customers in 2003. When we were given a look at this iteration of Toyota’s electric SUV at the 2010 L.A. auto show, the company wasn’t sharing final technical specs or detailed information of any kind. At that time, the vehicle was only just entering its testing phase; now that the production model is here, so are the specs.

As its name implies, the RAV4 EV is pretty much a normal RAV4 but with an electric powertrain. Tesla contributed all of the RAV4’s electric bits, including the motor and lithium-ion battery pack; Toyota provided the RAV4 wrapper. The motor is good for 154 hp and max torque of 273 lb-ft; the output is routed through a single-speed transmission to the RAV4’s front wheels. There are two driving modes, Normal and Sport. Even though the idea of sport anything on an electric SUV may sound silly, the Sport mode provides access to full torque, which makes a tangible difference in the crossover’s performance. (Just 218 lb-ft of torque is available in Normal mode.) In Sport, the claimed 0-to-60-mph time drops from 8.6 seconds to 7.0, and top speed climbs to 100 mph from 85. The given acceleration estimates for the electric RAV4 in either driving mode fall between our test results for the pokey four-cylinder RAV4 and the 269-hp V-6 model. As for weight, the EV carries an additional 400 pounds over a 4WD V-6 model, which puts it over 4000 pounds.
Thanks to: Car and Driver