Toyota RAV4 EV priced at $49,800

Does anyone know the toyota quota in california for BEVs 2012-2014? To me the volume seems to be targeted to the quota, then the price set to what toyota thought would sell that number.

fjpod,

You and I can't buy one, we don't live in the 4 metro areas in california toyota is selling them. This is a low volume vehicle, and mainly a conversion. The size of the rav4 seems about right to add that big battery pack. leaf, focus ev, imev, tesla s seem to be targeting normal cars. A little variety and choice is good. I know at least 2 people that would probably buy one for their businesses here if Toyota sold them here. Tesla X will be the next BEV SUV.

 

It's frankly less overkill than $50k on a mini-SUV that can't go very far just to avoid burning gas. This isn't even AWD and I bet it has no tow capacity, either, so it's really like a very bottom of the line Rav4 (powertrain-wise) if not worse but costs literally twice as much. The electric premium on this vehicle is totally out of line.

I'm inclined to wonder, finally, if these companies really are just doing this for some sort of CAFE workaround; they don't honestly plan or care about selling many vehicles. There's no way in the world Nissan is making money any day soon on the Leaf, if it sold only 12/day last month across the entire country. And can Toyota make bank on this selling 860/year?

 

Yup, I think they would sell a ton of RAV4 AWD hybrids. Hopefully it's in the pipeline. Mid-$30's price tag with a low 30's MPG seems achievable.

I'd certainly buy one to replace my '04 CR-V.

 

how in the world is premium for RAV4 out of line? It is far less than Volt or Leaf, when you consider how much Rav4 costs and how big is the battery.

 

problem with that is that you are buying very expensive 2nd car for the family...
... so there is no simple solution.

Honestly EVs are niche products right now and Toyota knows it. At least it isnt pretending like others (cough*Ford*cough)

 

My mailbox has been jammed with requests for this car both IN and out of state. It won't be sold out of CA at this time, so how will you service it or perform warranty work out of state?

My feeling is that Toyota will make it part of our Rav4 EV agreement to sell that the car be sold and registered to CA.

 

Tesla stock is down 7% after investors are disappointed at "high cost" of Rav4 EV... Toyota pays $38k per car for Tesla powertrain, which tells you enough about how lowly it is actually priced compared to production costs.

What exactly did these analyst think, that EVs are going to be comparable in price to petrol engines?

Just shows that there is no wide market for such cars right now.

 

Its more disappointed about the volume of only 2600 cars in 3 years. Investors thought toyota would spread development costs over more cars. Tesla also reports earnings tomorrow, and big swings come before its earnings announcements.
Tesla Falls as Toyota Prices Electric RAV4 Near $50,000 - Bloomberg

 

I dont think investors "thought" anything... they are obviously not informed about the costs of technology here. Rav4 has 70% bigger battery than Leaf for instance. How could it cost the same (which is probably what they expected 35k-40k price).

 

If this car had the the 'T'esla rather than 'T'oyota emblem, people would be amazed that Tesla had brought their EV cars down from $100k to $43k range (after tax credits) so quickly.

 

Those are also out of line; all these EV cars have absurd electric premiums. You more or less have to buy two cars and yet get one, and oh yeah it's only got a range of 100 miles. Taken objectively the technology is too immature.

Nope!

 

If you can get this Rav4 with full tax credit, meaning at $40k... thats 9k more than V6, with less options. LEDs, upgraded instruments/HVAC, Land Cruiser sized-nav alone would probably be $3k-4k package, so you actually pay $6k for "EV" premium... this is peanuts.

I think it is horrifying to the EV industry that people are thinking this is high price, when car is essentially priced 40% less than what it should be if it had petrol engine and same build costs.

 

ya but limited production and availability will take most people out of the chance to buy. the pricing is probably a big reason why Tesla stock took a dive

 

Why are you comparing it to the V6 when it has less horsepower than the 4 cylinder? And, apparently, zero tow capacity, and it's only FWD? It's $20k more than a near-loaded 6 cylinder with AWD, or after gov throws money at it, $10k more. Its power train is functionally inferior to the entry level, bottom-of-the-barrel ICE Rav4, if only because it has no tow capacity, and that rav4 doesn't cost much over $20k.

Demand will undoubtedly be trifling at this price and would be even if availability were nationwide.

 

cylinders?? why are we talking cylinders? can the V-6 go zero to 60 in 7 seconds? because if it cant, then maybe we need to price an 8 cylinder RAV

 

They thought Toyota would try to sell more and lose more to build ev experience. I expected them to at least try to sell 2K units a year starting in 2013.

The car and driver article made it sound like it was in between the 4 and 6 in acceleration. Given the electric drive feel, I'm sure most would prefer it to the 6 cylinder model. How much more they would pay, well that is the real question. Some will be happy to pay the price to not use gas. Toyota only is trying to sell 2600 of these in 3 years, that is a very small number. They sold 15,000 RAV4s last month.

6.3 seconds, but it uses a lot more gas than the rav4 bev. I doubt most drivers will push it more than a rav4 bev though, the SUV isn't designed for that. Car and Driver says about 30% opt for the V6.

 

Actually its 0-60 is mid 6's, but what's the implication of running this in sport mode all the time? To be totally honest with you there is something fishy about a 154 horsepower car of this horsepower motivating its mass to 60 in 7 seconds. In fact, it can't be done. So, sport-mode must be calling on more juice from the batteries than they are presumably making most of the time, and bumping its horsepower up to over 200. I guess I like that idea in theory (if it's real).

 

Sport mode allows the batteries to provide full power. This is less efficient, which will result in less range. In normal mode the motor is limited to 218 ft-lbs of torque while it jumps to its rated 273 ft-lbs in power mode.

Being an electric motor, its torque is available from low rpm. This provides for much greater acceleration at low speeds than an ICE. The RAV4 uses a single speed transmission.

 

Speculate all you want. I'm going to sell the crap out of these here in CA.