A first gen Toyota RAV4 EV still around in the wild

Posted by Maps_Spotter_222@reddit | WeirdWheels | View on Reddit | 44 comments

This is a first gen Toyota RAV4 EV, avaliable from 1997 to 2003. It was first only avaliable on a limited basis and later possible for businesses, cities, or utilities to lease them starting in 2001. In 2003, Toyota sold 328 RAV4 EVs to the general public, afterwards the program was terminated. Overall, approximately 1,900 units were sold or leased through 2003, of which approximately 1,500 in the U.S. and 400 in Japan.

The first gen RAV4 EV had Panasonic 27.4 kWh NiMH batteries and an electric motor, allowing for a top speed of 78 mph (governed) and an EPA rated range of 95 miles. The MSRP was $42,000, but many rebates and grants brought the price closer to $29,000 to $33,000. The specs are by no means impressive, but what is impressive is that this is a 25 year old EV still on the road.

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apaloosafire@reddit

i always see one of these parked up the street when i visit my cousin and it’s in super good shape

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bunabhucan@reddit

I used to own the GM equivalent: a Chevrolet S-10 EV - all the gubbins from a EV1 shoehorned into a fleet S-10, no gas engine. 70mph top speed, could only drive 40 miles when I got it. Most were leased/crushed but some were titled and escaped.

My neighbor had the rav4 ev.

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TheToddBarker@reddit

I love this era of EV automotive freaks. I wish I could have an EV1, no joke.

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bunabhucan@reddit

I think some of the folks* involved in getting the S-10s back on the road got the one EV1 GM donated to a university back running.

One of the first 30 employees of Apple was the winning bidder on the contract with GM to recycle the EV1 batteries and made sure the contract did not actually require that they be recycled. He warehoused the packs and started making good packs from the best cells and bought andrehabbed the remaining S-10 EVs. Sadly the BMS had had a bug - it had code to "catch" a runaway cell and kill charging before it caught fire and generate a code. It also had code to reduce charging to 75% , 50% , 25% as the cells topped up. For whatever reason the "stop a runaway cell" code did't run during the 75/50/25% top up. GM put all the S-10EV liabilities into the "bankrupt GM" when they got bailout money so absemt a fix they can only be charged outside and under supervision.

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st162@reddit

Looks funny without thr spare tyre on the back door. Guess they were trying to save weight?

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Maps_Spotter_222@reddit (OP)

Looks like it was moved to under the rear

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freddotu@reddit

No spares in either the legacy EV models nor in the contemporary EV models. The 2013 series gets a can of fix-a-flat and an air compressor and crossed fingers (provided by owner).

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YorockPaperScissors@reddit

I am curious if these had a frunk or if that space was used for battery or electric motor components

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Drzhivago138@reddit

All batteries/motor up front, plus all the other little things you need to have for any car.

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Negative-Card-4413@reddit

In the late 90s they were tested in a Small Island in the UK.

Top Gear had a report about it.

https://youtu.be/2fLlQZsqGFk?si=_azF43F-3BfjevDG

As well as men and motors.

https://youtu.be/Kox1XJRh43E?si=G1_ppY8moMct2Utn

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Warm-Rock-5349@reddit

Any idea what the KW/h is on the battery?

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Maps_Spotter_222@reddit (OP)

27.4

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jmello@reddit

Wild! I saw one in Fayetteville Arkansas a month or so ago

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Maps_Spotter_222@reddit (OP)

That's an interesting random place for one!

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Superredeyes@reddit

here's an employee at my work that has one, they are wild it looks like a cross between a Prius and a rav4 on the inside, didn't know they were rare

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freddotu@reddit

We owned a pair of these, a 02 and an 03 model. My wife insisted on a replacement when the limited range of the pack left her stranded a bit more than a mile from home, despite the GOM showing plenty remaining. Her replacement was a 2013 Rav4EV, which would do more than a hundred miles under her heavy foot.

That one was afflicted with the Tesla power train, which failed by allowing motor coolant into the integrated inverter, destroying the bearings. I learned of this failure mode after dispensing of my earlier version and buying another 2013 Rav4EV.

I didn't want to dump a white elephant on an unsuspecting buyer, so webuyanycar.com got one of them, and another bulk buyer/seller got the other. They were both good cars, especially with the J1772 charging capability, compared to the SPI type.

Needing only one car now, our Volvo XC40 Recharge is likely to be the last car we own before departing this plane of existence.

There's a mailing list for the early Rav4EV models with minimal activity as of late. Alexandra Paul of Baywatch fame is a strong supporter of the model and helps keep a database of owners. I'm a bit tickled to have received a personal email reply from a major television star, even if it was only related to automobiles. Unfortunately, no autograph.

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NatesYourMate@reddit

Almost expected to get ShittyMorphed by your story lol

Sure as shit, here's Alexandra Paul's personal website and story about her love for the Rav4 EV: https://alexandrapaul.com/activism/electric-cars/

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CanonicalbombXVR-626@reddit

This is also technically the first Tesla

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Nervous_Olive_5754@reddit

The Detroit Electric predates the Tesla by a century, and it wasn't the first electric car.

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DubTeeF@reddit

Was it made by Elon or are you using that word like "xeroxing" something?

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Best-Championship296@reddit

Tesla existed before Elon, he just bought it.

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Ill_fix_u@reddit

Huh.. if that is true, today I learned...

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bacondesign@reddit

Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning are the original founders of Tesla. Musk can only legally call himself as Tesla founder due to a lawsuit that the original founders agreed to.

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KeeganY_SR-UVB76@reddit

It is true! He did join the company quite early on, in 2004.

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CIS-E_4ME@reddit

The second gen version ('12-14) was the Tesla one.

Its drivetrain, battery pack, etc were designed/built by Tesla and supplied to Toyota.

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bsparks@reddit

Ehhh. The second gen RAV4 EV was the third production car to have a Tesla powertrain but calling it “a Tesla” is missing the mark so hard it’s not even funny.

Not to mention there are plenty of reports about Toyota being frustrated with Tesla’s lack of QC for the motors to the point they had to independently verify every single one and also opted to use Panasonic to supply the battery packs instead of Tesla because of reliability.

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model-citizen95@reddit

This is the worst burn on Tesla that I’ve ever read. Just wow…

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Nervous_Olive_5754@reddit

These shared a charging standard with the Ford Ranger EV called AVCON. GM chose to develop their own Magnecharge inductive system because they said people were worried about getting shocked.

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bsparks@reddit

These absolutely used Magnecharge, only Ford and Honda used the AVCON while GM, Nissan, and Toyota used MC.

Also a lot of people parrot the “people were worried about getting shocked” but the reality was it made for a more weather resistant connector so you didn’t have to worry about connectors corroding and causing a bad connection leading to arcing or worse.

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Nervous_Olive_5754@reddit

That's what I get for trying to double-check my memory with AI.

I think the ad piece GM did on inductive charging with the goldfish in the tank kind of sticks with you. Maybe there was more than one reason. I figured those were hosed as soon as I figured out the efficiency penalty on inductive vs conductive. And the heat.

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bsparks@reddit

From all the papers I have read over the years the efficiency penalty was less than 3% and for heat it’s not like current cables aren’t actively cooled these days too lol

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tomato432@reddit

the cables are but inductive charging heats up the connector

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Nervous_Olive_5754@reddit

I don't think I follow what you're trying to say.

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tomato432@reddit

the paddle in an inductive charging setup produces a lot more heat than a conductive charging connector

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Nervous_Olive_5754@reddit

I'm referring to DC fast charging. That's always conductive. No way to donit with a paddle. They would have had to add the conductors back anyway.

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Nervous_Olive_5754@reddit

Oh, you'd have to multiply by the active cooling penalty, but you wouldn't need to, because you can't use DC for inductive charging, so no L3 fast charging.

I think the losses for inductive charging were over 10% back then. And they were always broken.

So it would've worked as a home charger, but it wouldn't have been very good otherwise.

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bunabhucan@reddit

The toyota used a smaller "paddle" but came with a spacer to charge a GM.

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Fuck_it_@reddit

That's $79,200 adjusted for inflation if it cost $42,000 in the year 2000.

Would you pay $80k for a RAV4 that's arguably worse than the one for 1/3 the price? Honestly surprised they sold as many as they did.

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