The 2026 Toyota RAV4 Plug In Hybrid XSE Is Worth the Extra $10,000

0:00 This year we've driven four versions of the RAV4. The XSE at $42,000. The Woodland, the GR Sport, and this XSE plug in at $52,000. Toyota builds the trim ladder so you can find the rung where you say that's enough car. And most buyers say it early. They're not wrong to. What I want to know is what that last $10,000 buys. Because at some point it stops being about equipment and starts being a story you tell yourself in the showroom.

0:34 324 horsepower combined, and it starts with the gasoline motor making 186 horsepower. What makes up the difference are the two electric motors. But these two electric motors make peak torque at zero RPM, which is why acceleration in this thing is instantaneous. Instead of stepping on the throttle waiting for a downshift and then some acceleration, here it's just instant. The reality is this powertrain makes a RAV4 quick, which kind of sounds unnecessary until you do need all of that power, because in some situations it is a safety margin.

1:14 It's the difference between completing a pass and abandoning one halfway through. The thing about the gasoline motor is that you rarely feel it contributing directly to acceleration. You hear it every once in a while, that familiar naturally aspirated four cylinder sound somewhere on the other side of the firewall. And no matter what kind of sound it makes at a given moment, it really doesn't have a direct relationship to the acceleration curve. Most of the time, the 2.5 liter 4 is acting as a generator that happens to be somehow bolted to the front wheels.

1:49 It clocks in, doesn't shift, and seems to have no desire to become an interesting part of this car. It does run 14 to 1 compression on 87 octane. And 20 years ago that would have been very interesting or perhaps a felony. Ask a traditional automatic transmission for everything at about 45 miles an hour and it takes a moment to decide which gear is appropriate. Ask this one. And it's already decided, because there's no decision that has to be made.

2:17 What Toyota calls sequential shift control is a simulation. Living on top of all of that, these shift paddles are the one control in here I can't get to behave. And even my Labrador retriever has better recall than these. I said my piece about these shift paddles in the recent GR Sport episode and they seem best at doing an imitation of an elevator closed door button. Sometimes they do something, sometimes they don't. Same paddles, same argument. But just because this sequential shift control simulation isn't perfect doesn't mean the powertrain isn't responsive because it is.

2:51 Toyota's own description of the rear electric motor is worth a minute. Most all wheel drive systems wait for slip and then they react. In this RAV4, that electric motor is actually taking inputs from your right foot as well as steering angle and moves first. That's the difference between an all wheel drive system that corrects you and one that agrees with you. Off the line. In the dry, there's no scrambling for traction and no traction control light flashing on the dashboard.

3:20 During this week with this RAV4, there wasn't an any rain to speak of, so I didn't get to try this in any real adverse conditions. If you dig into the spec sheet, Toyota publishes some interesting numbers. 186 horsepower for the gasoline motor, 203 for the front electric motor. That's 389 horsepower before we even factor in the rear electric motor. But Toyota only rates that rear electric motor in torque and the official number for this entire powertrain is 324 horsepower.

3:54 But every plug in hybrid does their math this way and I think every one of them hopes that you don't. Subscribers get notified when the next episode goes live. Everybody else leaves it to the algorithm. If you want to see when the next review on this channel hits YouTube, well, that's what the subscribe button's for. Every RAV4 gets the same steering setup, the same steering tuning, except the GR Sport. And I really didn't feel any difference with the GR Sport I drove, but it was a pre production unit so I'll reserve judgment on the GR Sport steering when I drive a full production model.

4:32 So what you need to know here is steering is strong on center, it's precise, responsive, it is on the slow side and there's not much feel or feedback that comes through to the steering wheel from the front tires. And maybe the highlight is that it's happy to track straight and over a long drive. That's going to mean a less fatiguing experience for you, the driver. At 4540 pounds, this XSE plug in is the heaviest of all RAV4s.

5:00 Same size brake rotors and pads as the 110 pound lighter GR Sport. But this brake pedal doesn't admit to any of it. The brake pedal is consistent, it's got great feel, brakes are strong and you can modulate this pedal easily. But one of the highlights is you really can't tell where the blending happens between these friction brakes and regenerative braking. They have got this RAV4's braking system dialed. Even in emergency situations with full ABS, it's strong, stops quickly and you've got all the confidence in the world to get this thing stopped or slowed so you can turn around something that's jumped out in front of you.

5:42 As they often do on the mean streets of Toronto. Turn into a corner with some enthusiasm and the body comes along. Maybe a quarter of a heartbeat later, the body rolls a little bit, then it settles, takes a set and is happy to carve the rest of the line through the corner. With the GR Sport, Toyota spent most of the money on suspension calibrations and it's fundamentally different than this xse. Keeps that GR Sport buttoned down and it's very happy in the corners.

6:12 This one lets the body move a little bit more, catches it once and settles it. Then it just gets on with being the RAV4 that most people would enjoy driving every day. 20 inch wheels on a midsize crossover usually cost you in terms of ride quality, especially all the small amplitude road imperfections that we have in this part of the world. Less than perfect road surfaces and even expansion joints really don't find their way into the cabin.

6:40 It's more of a sound than a feeling. You hear and feel those big single hits once and then they stop. Whatever Toyota's Dynamics engineers did with the damping calibration of this xse, well, it's absolutely perfect for your daily commute. Ride quality is a highlight here and the suspension never complains and never protests. This does have a trail mode. It also runs on 20 inch wheels with a 50 series sidewall profile and about 8 inches of ground clearance.

7:12 So I'm not quite sure what trail is supposed to be used for here, but I do appreciate the optimism. If you'd like to support the channel beyond just watching. The link to the Merch store is here. Your support there means more time for us to produce episodes like this and a little less time worrying about industry access. No pressure, just an option. I've always preferred to sit low in any vehicle, but a crossover is a machine designed by people who fundamentally disagree with me.

7:46 Fine, I get it. I understand why people buy crossovers, and that's to sit higher off the road to have some better visibility. Anyway, doesn't stop this RAV4 from setting me up perfectly behind the wheel. There's plenty of adjustment in the seat and the steering column, so I've got a great Interface to this rav4. Visibility is excellent all around, as you'd expect from a RAV4. It's enhanced here with this camera mirror. And these things are wonderful, generally speaking, they provide a wider field of view and they're really excellent up to the point where you have some nasty weather and can't see out, and then you've got to flip the mirror back to its original position.

8:24 Position, and you have to drive like it's 1998 all over again. The temperature controls are actual buttons and volume control is an actual knob. And Toyota retained the physical controls for the things that people use most. When you use the volume knob, Toyota built a readout into the top of the screen to show you your volume levels numerically. So if you use Apple CarPlay like I do, that volume display ends up on the top of your screen.

8:52 And there are occasions in CarPlay where that is just visually distracting and even gets in the way. Someone designed that and somebody approved it. Meanwhile, the ventilated seat controls are hidden in a menu here. And this on a trim level whose primary job is to sell you ventilated seats. When we drove the XLE not that long ago, we talked about this toggle shifter and that it hadn't been deployed across the entire range because RAV4 buyers haven't warmed up to this idea yet.

9:23 Whether they have or whether they haven't, I have. And Toyota put this toggle shifter on this trim where they knew it wouldn't start a riot, which is pretty smart if you ask me. When I first opened the door to this one, looked at the seats, I went, oh, I get it. This is the premium one. And these seats do look premium. I think that's some soft text on the outside, some sueded microfiber and then some blue contrasting stitching and piping, and they look fantastic.

9:53 Then I looked around the rest of the cabin and went, oh, this is just like every other RAV4. But here, it's the upholstery and especially these front seats that persuade you that this is the most luxurious RAV4. Unlike some other crossovers in the segment, there is no whimsy here whatsoever. This RAV4 is straightforward and forthright, and I think those were the goals. There are some numbers that I can give you without pretending that I really live with this RAV4.

10:21 3,500 pound towing capacity. Side note, the GR Sport's official position on that is, I don't do that. 1,250 pounds of payload capacity, which is the lowest of all plugins, 33.6 cubic feet of useful cargo space behind the second row seats, and a 1500 watt household outlet in the cargo area, which means it also runs power tools. Apparently the brief for The XSE was RAV4, but all of it if this review gave you something more than a brochure or a press release, hit like it tells YouTube to share this episode with other people like you.

11:01 Interested in an episode like this takes just a second. That's what this XSE plugin told me. Owners who've had these for months tell a slightly different story than just a perfect week behind the wheel charging comes up first and not the flattering half the 11kW charger needs 240 volts to mean anything on a household outlet. Owners report the car pulling about 8amps under a kilowatt and quoting 16 to 20 hours from zero.

11:31 The expensive part of this trim only shows up after an electrician visits your house and then the app owners watch a charge and then find no history for it. Missing kilowatt hours, sessions logged as zero energy and some owners who couldn't document off peak charging for the utility program that pays them to do it. The heads up display, which has forum consensus behind it, disappears with polarized sunglasses. Several owners Same complaint. Bright day in a blank windshield and that mirrors my experience.

12:03 And the seats complaints from owners actually come from two different camps. One side's describing how they look, the other is describing padding and the hard console armrest. I enjoyed several hours behind the wheel of this RAV4 and thought the cabin was fine. I guess the complaints start somewhere after 500 miles. And note that those complaints are either software or the surfaces you interface with. None of them mechanical, which is right on point for a first year Toyota.

12:31 If you own one of these or have some quality seat time behind the wheel of one of these, let me know in the comments what I got right and what I got wrong because real world owner experiences are much more valuable than anything I can learn in a week long press loan. And I always read those comments. So back to the original question. What does that last $10,000? Buy a port that works at public charging stations instead of just your garage.

13:00 Four more miles of electric range than the GR Sport. An 11 kilowatt onboard charger where the SE and the GR Sport gets seven which takes a full charge at home from three and a half hours to two and a half, plus a longer list of real features than the top of most trim ladders and the story you tell yourself portion of the bill is smaller than I anticipated. But everything good about this car assumes a plug somebody with a charger at home or at work, and a commute inside 52 miles can go long stretches without ever visiting a gas station.

13:32 Somebody without a charger has bought 22.7 kilowatt hours of lithium, mostly to chauffeur it around. So before we even consider arguing about XSE versus GR Sport options or anything else in this video, the question is where are you plugging it in? Buy the XSE. It'll do 52 miles on electricity and then it'll take a DC fast charger when you're far away from home. And subjectively it may have the best ride quality of any crossover in the segment.

14:03 Get the tech package, otherwise you end up leaving the ventilated seats and the heads up display on the table. Then be prepared to be patient, because I think in most markets these are still scarce and nobody's discounting them. For me, it's still the GR Sport and I'll take the lesser electric range and the slower charging to get it. Compromise, my friends, is one of those central points about owning a car that you want to Drive. That's the RAV4XSE plug in.

14:31 Subscribe if you want to see more episodes like this, don't. If you don't. Comments are open if you disagree, and if you'd like to help fund more of these, the link to the Merch Merch store is here. See you on the next one.