Toyota isn’t necessarily shaking up its plug-in hybrid models, but it is changing up the naming scheme.
For over a decade, Toyota’s had some form of plug-in hybrid model in the market, be it with the Prius or the incredibly popular RAV4. If you walked into a dealership right now, both PHEV models carry the “Prime” badge, but that will not be the case from 2025 onward. Now, Toyota announced it would drop the Prime naming scheme and instead go for the much more straightforward RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid and Prius Plug-in Hybrid.
“The switch to the RAV4 Plug-in name is intended to help consumers more easily identify the powertrain choices among RAV4 models,” the company said in its release Thursday. In addition to the name change, the former RAV4 Prime will also lose the blue “halo” around the edges.
Functionally, the 2025 Toyota RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid is exactly the same as before, apart from the name switch-up. You still get a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine backed by two electric motors, for a total of 302 horsepower. Like before, the model is available in either SE or XSE trims, both of which manage about 42 miles of all-electric range on out of the 18.5-kWh battery before the gas engine kicks in.
Pricing for the 2025 Toyota RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid kicks off at $45,260 for the SE, including destination. In other words, it’s $185 higher than last year — not too bad, even considering there aren’t any huge year-over-year changes. The better-equipped XSE comes in at $49,130. Each RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid comes with the industry-standard 3-year/36,000-mile basic warranty, as well as a 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty and 8 years or 100,000 miles of battery coverage.
The RAV4 PHEV will arrive later this year “in limited quantities.”
The Prius Plug-in Hybrid, for its part, also carries over into 2025 relatively unchanged. It uses a 2.0-liter engine and cranks out a combined 220 horsepower, though the sleeker and smaller Prius (with a smaller 13.6-kWh battery) manages up to 44 miles before it’s out of juice and the engine fires up to keep you moving. Pricing isn’t available yet, but we suspect it won’t be too much higher, given the RAV4 isn’t getting a huge price bump either.
