Toyota RAV4 vs RAV4 Hybrid 0-60 Test & Comparison

The RAV4 is a great SUV, but for a similar cost, you can have a hybrid version. So today I break down the differences between the two along with their performance and reliability. This kind of test is becoming even more important with the new Honda CR-V and Kia Sorento also offering hybrid versions and a whole host of others on their way!

On occasion i wake up in a cold sweat wondering which rav4 powertrain the hybrid or the regular gas model is quicker to 60. so today i’m going to put my mind and hopefully yours too at ease but more importantly i’m going to talk the details and differences between two of the powertrains offered in america’s most popular suv if you enjoy detailed fun car content on

All sorts of vehicles consider subscribing and hitting the notification bell thank you first and foremost all the specs trims and features i’m going to be giving you right now are for the 2022 model however these are both 2019 model years you want to know why it’s incredibly hard to get one rav4 let alone two of different powertrains but the good news is that if

You want all the specs trims and features and in-depth shots of a 2022 model i have a review coming up here very shortly additionally there have been zero changes to the powertrain of the rav4 and its hybrid brother from 2019 to 2022 i will use insert shots of my new silver hybrid tester throughout i have to give a big thank you to royal south toyota for letting

Me take out the rav4s for this video they usually have a great selection of toyotas and they sell them quickly royal south is located in bloomington indiana the staff pays close attention to detail and is dedicated to their customers if you’re looking for a new or used ride check them out the biggest change to the exterior of the 2022 rav4s from these 2019s is

Redesigned led headlights on all except the base specs you have an equal amount of trims available whether you go hybrid or gas six each actually four of which are shared however each have two special trims the hybrid model is going to have the se which is new for 22 and the xse so those are going to get a sport tuned suspension whereas the standard rav4 is going

To have more rugged approach and it’s going to get the adventure and trd off-road exclusive to it you’ll have 8.4 inches of ground clearance on the base and xle 8.6 on the rest you want to know why my guess wheels you get bigger wheels once you step up to the xle premium which that trd off-road model doesn’t go to the extent that jeep’s trailhawk does or subaru’s

Wilderness will it does get a trd tuned suspension which should help it ride a little bit better over rough roads but i haven’t driven one so i can’t say much more than that and it does also have some very mild all-terrain tires on it so under the hood of the standard rav4 you’re gonna have a 2.5 liter direct injected and port fuel injected inline four it makes

203 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque and this is paired to an 8-speed automatic that’s made to achieve really high fuel economy numbers we’re talking 35 miles to the gallon on the highway with front wheel drive and really you only drop one combined if you go with the 4×4 the d4s system that dual injection there is as probably a lot of you know is designed

To keep the intake valves clean of carbon unlike regular direct injection so i do appreciate that toyota does that on pretty much all of their models now but now it’s time to see what it actually can do to 60. decent performance off the line much better than i was thinking you know i put it into sport mode had traction control off ac off so we got 0 to 60 of 8.1

Seconds which is better than what i’ve gotten with any subaru forester and a notch ahead of the last naturally aspirated cx-5 i’ve tested still buying the standard rav4 for its straight line hustle would be more ill-advised than taking life advice from someone who has their snapchat username in their instagram bio if you care about speed put on your detective hat

Grab a trusty weapon and try to track down an ultra rare 300 horsepower rav4 prime for everyone else looking at a rav4 refinement probably means more to you than speed one of the bigger complaints here is the transmission so now i’m heading up this hill you kind of do need to give it a little bit more gas to make it feel like you’re not lugging the engine but

I think i was going into this thinking that it would take a firm beating on the gas pedal to get it to drop down a couple gears but really doesn’t it’s tuned for economy and you also have to remember the gear ratios in here uh when you consider the final drive ratio they’re tall so even though this has an eight-speed automatic don’t think that this has a really

Close ratio gearbox ready to tear up the back road it gets up to highway speed with not too many complaints i will note the the engine here is not super refined sounding and that’s really the loudest noise that will come into the cabin normally this model i can hear more tire noise but i think it’s just because it’s a used car with the 2022 rav4 i drove recently

None of that was present i would consider that car among the more quiet in the segment we’re doing 65 right now we’re cruising about 1600 rpms again this has some pretty tall gear ratios especially there eighth so the engine really isn’t drawing attention to itself this model is equipped with all-wheel drive it is a pretty standard front wheel slip rears come on

In most situations if you step up to the adventure and off-road you’ll have standard torque vectoring all-wheel drive which is supposed to allow natural power delivery from side to side in the rear differential but the real world usage of that is a little bit disappointing driving sports tv actually did a great video that i would recommend watching but to keep

It short it struggles with transferring torque to the rear in general and it tends to cut power in the most hairy situations the limited trim comes standard with front wheel drive but does offer that torque vectoring all-wheel drive too if you want it but the limited won’t get the upgraded alternator oil cooler and trans fluid cooler that you will get with the

Adventure in trd off-road which can tow 3 500 pounds as a result more than double of most other rav4s you could definitely make an argument that this is the most comfortable car in the class going over this really poorly paved road you can hit some pretty large imperfections especially with more sidewall here with our 17-inch wheels it really takes a crater of

A pothole to really translate something into your spine granted it’s a little soft so going over some of these corners at speed you kind of get a little bit more body motion than maybe what’s desirable by some people but i think for the small suv buyer a vast majority of them this is about the way that you’re going to want it to handle so i’m pretty impressed by

Just the regular rav4 here but for an extra 1500 you could get a rav4 hybrid so let’s find out if it’s worth it under the hood of the rav4 hybrid is the same engine 2.5 liter naturally aspirated except here it makes more around 176 horsepower which when you have that in combination with the two electric motors here of the hybrid you get a decent amount of power 219

Horsepower to be exact now one interesting thing is that if you go with the hybrid you’ll actually have a nickel hydride battery if you go with the le or xle but if you step up to the xle premium you’re then going to have a lithium ion since they are rated at the same power that shouldn’t affect our 0 to 60 here which i’ll do here now so again traction control off

Sport mode ac off it’s okay that felt quicker and it was at 7.4 seconds to 60 but i got low satellites this time i managed 6.9 seconds with my 2022 model when all was working properly the regular car has to be in the higher rpms to provide real thrust whereas the hybrid feels more like a torquey old six cylinder this has all-wheel drive as standard the all-wheel

Drive system doesn’t have a true drive shaft connecting the front and rear axle here it’s actually a separate motor situated at the back for the most part it drives like a front-wheel drive car sending torque to the back when needed just like the regular rav4 however the rear axle just does not have enough torque to get it over all that many obstacles it’s great

If you just have you know the snowy climate and that’s what a lot of people driving these types of cars go through they’re not taking these off-road to the point where they need a lot of torque to the back although i still think it would be cool and nice to have i’m just glad that even though this has all-wheel drive standard you’re gonna get 40 miles of the gallon

Combined and when you consider that it rides the same i mean i don’t really notice any of the extra heft here it’s still that soft confident ride that i like in the regular route for so you still do have a manual mode here that simulates a six-speed automatic accelerating at highway speed is super easy again that instant torque the engine it’s not searching for

Gears it just does what it has to do it’s not glamorous but it’s a bit smoother than the other setup when it comes to suspension hardware and steering the rav4 hybrid and the standard car going to feel very similar i can’t really tell a difference now i did drive a 2022 xse over here recently and that has a more firm suspension that and the se get a more sporty

Ride i found that to be pretty forgiving too and this well honestly i can’t say it feels more comfortable might be just dialed back a little bit there on the in the handling department the steering is not super precise it’s not going to react immediately to your inputs there you got caught a little bit of gravel there this is pretty controlled but the steering

Is just going to be numb as you would expect given that it’s a rav4 and it’s also a little bit on the light side however it does build up in weight nicely so it doesn’t feel completely alien it has somewhat of a natural feeling to it now going up the same hills and stuff that i was pushing the regular rav4 through what i find with the cvt is one it’s not going to

Be as linear step on the gas and it’s you know the engine revs are constantly shifting you don’t have a tachometer here i just hear it and feel it but the nice thing about is that the electric motors there come in pretty quick and while it’s not something that’s gonna shove you in the back of your seat immediately once the power builds up in the regular engine it

Does actually start to hustle making this the better car for hilly windy corners as there’s more of a delay with the eight speed when it’s in its normal settings the consistency of power delivery when you want it is a pro to the hybrid setup however the brakes in the standard car are more natural than the hybrids but only if you pay close attention will you notice

That slight sticky feeling of the hybrids brakes with its regen capabilities i think when it comes to the back road needs of most crossover buyers the rav4 is plenty if you want something that’s more fun go with a mazda cx-5 or the new cx-50 unfortunately neither of those are hybrid yet and i think this has a little bit more body motion there around corners when

Compared to something like a subaru forester which has a very low center of gravity the last topic for this powertrain comparison is reliability the 8-speed auto has derived numerous complaints for rough low-speed performance upon its initial release but after software updates and whatnot complaints have dwindled the elephant in the room is the hybrid battery so

I asked a toyota service manager what people can expect batteries for toyota hybrids typically don’t become an issue until around the 12 maybe 10 year mark some make it longer as there are multiple variables here but mileage is not as big a factor as age the cost to repair has gone down over the years according to him he said to now expect something around three

Grand to replace a hybrid battery i’d like someone who has replaced one on a toyota in the last couple of years to comment on this too he also said this was for the camry or highlander as the rav4 hybrid is relatively new and he hasn’t replaced any yet so does this make the hybrid cost savings meaningless considering 12 000 miles a year for 12 years 30 miles per

Gallon for the rav4 and 40 for the rav4 hybrid and we’ll say 350 a gallon average gas price which is kind of a bold assumption now it would cost 4 200 more to fuel the gas model than the hybrid over 12 years considering the hybrid upgrade is about 1200 and the replacement is 3 grand it’s a theoretical wash the hybrid will save most first owners a lot of money since

You probably won’t have it for 12 years later owners will have to pay to play i think the hybrid powertrain offers a smoother experience overall and a noticeable improvement in performance i got a blistering 6.9 seconds with my 2022 tester with a lower da and a better launch i would skip the hybrid option if you desire more linear natural feeling transmission and

Brakes you have to have the towing capacity or personality of the adventure and trd off-road or you never want to worry about replacing a hybrid battery after the 10-year warranty dries up for everyone else if you can afford it the electrified version is the one i’d recommend but let me know in the comments section which one you would prefer and why thanks for

Watching my full thoughts and breakdown on the rav4 are coming soon if you enjoyed the video leave a like to help me with the ever mystical youtube algorithm if you want more subscribe and hit the notification bell lastly thank you to my few loyal patreon supporters i’ll catch you in the next one

Transcribed from video
Toyota RAV4 vs RAV4 Hybrid 0-60 Test & Comparison! By Realistick