Toyota overcomes its own recalcitrance on EVs http://www.motoring.com.au/reviews/2013/medium-4x4/toyota/rav4/toyota-rav4-ev-2013-quick-spin-35556 [image] Toyota RAV4 EV 2013: Quick Spin by Jeremy Bass 16 Mar 2013
[image http://liveimages.motoring.com.au/motoring/general/editorial/ge4699790538091487321.jpg ] Toyota overcomes its own recalcitrance on EVs to serve up one of the best yet Toyota RAV4 EV Quick Spin Los Angeles, USA What we liked: >>Big muscles >>Decent range by EV standards >>No compromise to donor vehicle space and practicality Not so much: >>Big money >>Feather-touch controls >>They don’t really want to build it Remarkably, it took Toyota just 22 months to take its RAV4 EV from a blank sheet of paper to the finished product you see here. And despite the haste, it’s come up with one of the better engineered and more compelling expressions of 21st century electric car values. This might seem odd, given the years the Japanese giant has spent extolling the advantages of the Hybrid Synergy Drive technology it uses in its Priuses over battery electric power. But there’s a reason for it. Toyota would have preferred not to build this car. It’s doing so only in the name of compliance with California’s ever tightening zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which is pushing the US auto industry towards a 15 per cent ZEV quotient among new car sales by 2025. This isn’t the first RAV4 EV, either. The electric compact SUV actually pre-dates the Prius, with the first iteration rolled out in 1997. Developed and built it in Japan, it was Toyota’s first response after California passed the mandate in 1991. About 1500 examples were made, for lease and later purchase in California only, between 1997 and 2003. By the time the new RAV4 was launched in mid-late 2012, almost 500 of the originals were reportedly still on the roads, many with 150,000 miles (240,000km) and more on the clock without an overhaul. On its debut in mid-late 2012, this second effort at a commercially available EV faced one immediately evident problem: built on the third-generation RAV platform, it arrived just in time for Toyota to announce the new, improved fourth-generation RAV. And at twice the price – a $50,610 sticker (plus on-roads) in a place you can get a very well spec’ed petrol RAV for not much over $30,000. Mind you, that’s before federal and state EV rebates cut in, bringing the car down closer to a still hefty $40K. No matter. While the old one bore little visual differentiation from its donor car on the outside and this one retains basic RAV exterior lines, Toyota has put a lot more work into pitching this car as standalone product. On the outside, they’ve given it a front bumper, grille, side mirrors and added a rear spoiler. The underbelly has been smoothed as well. All this gives the EV not just a distinctive look, but a drag coefficient of 0.30Cd, a figure Toyota claims as the best in the SUV segment. This RAV4 EV came to pass very differently to its predecessor. This time, Toyota looked to Silicon Valley EV whiz Tesla for a drivetrain. That’s got a lot to do with what makes it one of the better examples of the breed. It shares a number of components with Tesla’s Model S, but brings the entire drivetrain up front – the single 115kW electric motor, inverter, power management unit and the single-speed transmission driving the front wheels all sit under the bonnet. True to the Tesla formula, the RAV has its battery sitting like a concrete slab beneath the cabin. At 41.8kWh, it’s big in every way – by comparison, Nissan uses a 24kWh battery in its LEAF. Physically, that translates into a bulky 1876mm x 1454mm x 270mm, yet the EV loses nothing of the donor car's cargo space, which extends up to 2067 litres with the rear seats down. At 383kg, the battery takes the car’s kerb weight to 1829kg – a 168kg premium on the now defunct RAV4 V6 petrol. What’s it like to drive? Climbing in reveals a donor-car cockpit with heavy modification; gone is the stock analogue instrument cluster; in its place is a TFT screen with a large digital speedo flanked by charge and energy meters to the left, ancillaries to the right. Atop the centre stack is a 200mm touchscreen for audio, navigation, communications and vehicle settings. Beneath it sit the HVAC controls. The donor car’s conventional knobs have been replaced by feather-touch controls of the same kind GM uses in the Volt. High-tech they may be, but they’re ergonomically way inferior to their tactile counterparts, especially when there’s no rotary volume knob. That’s just annoying. The gear selector is a remap of the Prius one – Drive, Reverse, Neutral, Brake re-gen – moved with the park-brake button down to the console. The seats are upholstered in eco-friendly fabric, by which we presume they mean it’s fashioned from recycled materials (our spokespeople couldn’t confirm). To help minimise energy demands on the HVAC system, the front seats are heated, with cabin temperature sensors helping automate their activation. The air-conditioning has an Eco mode designed to conserve energy by being quite adequate in most conditions this side of a Death Valley summer. To get going, press the big Power button and you’re met with no noise; the Ready light appears above the speedo almost immediately. In Normal mode, to which the power unit defaults at start-up, putting your foot down gets you off the mark at a decent pace, although you can sense the motor is feeling the weight. The 295Nm of torque on tap is enough to get the RAV4 EV from zero to 100km/h in about 8.7 seconds, quite acceptable on urban roads and highways. Hit the Sport button on the centre stack and up rears the Tesla beast within, complete with Honda-style change in dash lighting from blue to red. Torque rises instantly to 370Nm, cutting the standing 100-kay sprint to just over seven seconds – a quarter better than the 3.5-litre V6. Despite the weight, channelling all that twist to the front wheels alone means it’s easy to get some shriek out of the rubber on take-off. But it keeps torque steer well under control. Even though the pedal feels soft and squishy underfoot, response is brisk across the range, and accompanied by no more than a low whine. This is a powerful car, but it’s also tightly governed. Sport mode lets it off the leash up high, taking top speed from 135 to 160 km/h. True to Tesla form, the is feel bottom-heavy. Going from flat into even the gentle uphill runs in central Los Angeles, there’s a sensation of slight delay as the suspension pushes the floor-weight up. But the ride is supple and pleasant. The electric steering doesn’t carve the sharpest line around corners, but it’s up the better end of the SUV market, and the car stays flat when it’s pushed through corners. While road noise doesn’t match the near silence under the bonnet, it’s commendably low. The RAV4 EV gets its anchors direct from the Prius, meaning the brake pedal functions more as an on/off switch for the re-gen systems than a progressive stopper wholly dependent on human input. It feels a bit wood-on-stone, but one of the company’s reps told motoring.com.au it was the company’s intention to carry over the feel of the Prius brakes because that’s what a fair number of RAV4 EV buyers will be used to. Most importantly, they work, even in the wet under the extra weight. Finally, to the matter of range. About an hour round the streets of Los Angeles doesn’t offer sufficient experience for informed opinion on the issue. While Toyota claims about 93 miles (150km) on a standard charge, our spokesman happily added that while Sport mode is fun, it will eat “significantly” into the car’s energy supplies. On the mpg-equivalent fuel efficiency scale, it’s officially rated at 76 mpge – some way short of the 2013 LEAF’s estimated 115 (it’s not officially confirmed yet, but Nissan is expecting a 15 per cent improvement on the 2012 model’s 99 mpge.) Toyota claims about five hours for a normal charge, about six for an extended charge, which pushes its claimed range to about 113 miles (180km). But those figures are on a US 240V/40A outlet. On a standard 110V domestic outlet, a normal charge from flat can take – wait for it – more than 40 hours. (Note: Australia might use 240V, but we use a lot less of the all-important amperes, just 10A for a standard domestic outlet.) This should be enough to convince most buyers to drop an extra $US1500 for a home fast-charge unit. In short, by US EV standards the RAV4 EV is costly, but it boasts superior range and performance to many of its counterparts, and with no incursion on the normal RAV’s interior space and practicality. It’s also nothing if not exclusive, with sales restricted not merely to California but to Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Toyota plans to mint just 2600 examples of it over a maximum three years. If it catches on, and sells out before that time’s up, they’ll look then at what to do next. 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