Toyota's Plug-In Hybrid Prius and RAV4 Drop "Prime" Names
The newly subprime Prius and RAV4 will go by the "Plug-In Hybrid" moniker from now on.
The Prius Prime and RAV4 Prime are no more—well, at least, their names are no more. If you're looking for a plug-in hybrid Toyota, however, your search just got easier, because they've been renamed to the more obvious "Plug-In Hybrid," or "PHEV" for short (which will be on the badges on the vehicles' rears), for 2025. Beyond the Prius Prime and RAV4 Prime transmogrifying into the Prius Plug-In Hybrid and RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid, there aren't many other changes.
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2025 Toyota RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid
For the RAV4 PHEV, that means the same two trim levels are on offer as before, the entry-level SE and the top-dog XSE (as on the Prius PHEV/Prime, both PHEVs follow Toyota's SE trim identifier denoting sportier models—regular RAV4s and Priuses get the LE and XLE monikers and have a comfort focus). Full pricing has not yet been revealed, but Toyota says the 2025 RAV4 PHEV SE's MSRP (sans destination and delivery charges) moves up just $175 over last year's RAV4 Prime SE. Standard equipment includes Toyota Safety Sense 2.5+ (adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning, automated emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, and automatic high beams), heated front seats, an 8.0-inch touchscreen, 8-way power driver's seat, a power opening tailgate, and a 6.6-kW onboard charger.
Power is generated by a hybridized 2.5-liter I-4 engine that works with dual electric motors to spin the front tires, along with a separate, third electric motor on the rear axle turning the rear tires (it's all-wheel drive). And there is a lot of that power: 302 hp combined, good enough to slingshot the RAV4 Prime—er, PHEV—to 60 mph in only 5.5 seconds in our testing. An 18.5-kWh lithium-ion battery pack has enough capacity to deliver up to 42 miles of electric-only driving range before the RAV4 PHEV reverts to conventional gas-electric hybrid drive.
2025 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid
This is a fun one—we actually have a 2024 Toyota Prius Prime XSE in our long-term test fleet, tracking its ownership experience over the course of a year following the Prius family's 2024 Car of the Year award. The new name will make our stories seem dated, surely, but otherwise the Prius Plug-In Hybrid neé Prime is unchanged for 2025.
As with the Prime, the Prius PHEV is powered by a more powerful hybrid setup than the regular Prius hybrid, delivering 220 hp from its two electric motors and 2.0-liter gas engine to its front tires alone. Its 13.6-kWh battery is larger than the Prius hybrid's, too, and big enough for up to 44 miles of electric-only driving. Like the RAV4, the Prius PHEV is only available in sportier SE, XSE, and XSE Premium trim levels; unlike the RAV4, Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 is standard, adding lane-keep assist to the active safety features listed above. Pricing for the 2025 Prius Plug-In Hybrids is forthcoming.
A lifelong car enthusiast, I stumbled into this line of work essentially by accident after discovering a job posting for an intern position at Car and Driver while at college. My start may have been a compelling alternative to working in a University of Michigan dining hall, but a decade and a half later, here I am reviewing cars; judging our Car, Truck, and Performance Vehicle of the Year contests; and shaping MotorTrend’s daily coverage of the automotive industry.
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