Toyota RAV4 Review & Prices

The Toyota RAV4 is a plug-in hybrid SUV that’s ideal for family life. It’s comfy, easy to drive and sips fuel even if you don’t plug it in - and when you do, the electric range is very impressive. However, the interior doesn’t feel nearly special enough to justify the price.

The RAV4 was the best-selling car in the entire world in 2025, so it’s a bit like an iPhone - there are cheaper alternatives, particularly Chinese ones, with flashier features, but familiarity and ease-of-use keep people buying what they’re used to.

Previous generations had a self-charging hybrid engine, but the new RAV4 is available only as a plug-in hybrid. That means it’s up against some seriously good alternatives such as the Volkswagen Tiguan, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson and Citroen C5 Aircross. Or, those aforementioned Chinese alternatives, such as the Jaecoo 8 or Chery Tiggo 9.

None of those cars look quite as appealing as the RAV4, though. It’s not pretty, but its chunky styling has shades of the Toyota Land Cruiser in it with a flat bonnet, pronounced wheel arches and sharp headlights. You can even get a top-spec GR Sport model with large, blacked-out wheels and more aggressive bumpers.

The chunky theme continues inside with a straightforward dashboard and reassuringly substantial controls. There are proper buttons for adjusting the cabin temperature, though the fan speed lives on the touchscreen. Fortunately, the RAV4’s infotainment system has clear graphics and menus that are easy to navigate.

Material quality is less impressive, though. There are hard, scratchy plastics in places you’ll touch regularly, and the whole affair is quite dark and gloomy. A Jaecoo 8 feels much more luxurious, despite costing about the same.

Rear passengers get plenty of headroom and kneeroom, though the raised floor means under-thigh support is lacking. The 446-litre boot is pretty modest, though - you get more space in a Sportage, Tiguan or Tiggo 9.

Every RAV4 is a plug-in hybrid with a choice of front- or four-wheel drive. Electric range is a massive 85 miles - one of the best figures in class - making it particularly appealing if you can charge at home. Even without charging, 50-60mpg is easily achievable, which is a very impressive figure.

The driving experience is very good too. Visibility is excellent, the steering feels natural and the brakes are progressive. The suspension is controlled in town, without thumping too hard over everyday bumps.

On the motorway it’s hushed with little wind or road noise and more than enough performance, though the engine does make a racket if you floor it. It’s not especially entertaining on a country road either, but the way everything works together feels much more convincing than most alternatives. It’s a strong all-rounder.

Verdict

The Toyota RAV4 is a great family SUV with excellent electric range, impressive economy and great driving manners in everyday scenarios. It’s worth shortlisting if you value easy ownership too, thanks to Toyota’s reliability record and ten-year warranty. However, the cheap-feeling interior is a bit of a disappointment compared to cheaper alternatives.

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The Toyota RAV4 starts at around £44,000, rising to roughly £52,000 before options. That’s a lot for a family SUV, particularly when cheaper Chinese alternatives such as the Chery Tiggo 8 and Omoda 7 offer generous equipment and plug-in hybrid power. Higher-spec RAV4s also stray into territory where a lightly used Lexus becomes tempting.

There are four trims. Icon has 18-inch alloy wheels, heated front seats and steering wheel, a powered tailgate, a 12.9-inch touchscreen and a 12.3-inch driver display. Design, at around £46,000, adds 20-inch wheels, two-tone paint, synthetic leather upholstery, heated and ventilated powered front seats and wireless phone charging. It’s the pick of the range, although neither Icon nor Design offers DC rapid charging or the excellent surround-view camera.

Excel costs around £50,000 with front-wheel drive or £52,000 with four-wheel drive. It adds leather upholstery, a head-up display, JBL audio, surround-view cameras and DC charging. GR Sport also starts at roughly £52,000, with four-wheel drive, sportier styling and revised suspension. The panoramic roof on Excel and smaller opening roof on GR Sport cost extra.

The RAV4 is comfortable, reassuring and easy to drive, but it’s not particularly entertaining

In town

Though it’s quite a large car, excellent visibility means manoeuvring the Toyota RAV4 is less intimidating than you’d think. The dashboard is low, the windows are large - even the back window - and the flat bonnet makes it easy to judge where the front corners are.

The steering is nice and light and the suspension absorbs bumps well without becoming as soft and wallowy as a Chery Tiggo 9 or Citroen C5 Aircross. The brakes are great too, without the inconsistent feel of some plug-in hybrids such as the Peugeot 3008.

There are surround-view cameras on top-spec cars which make it a doddle to park, though it’s a shame you can’t add these as an option to cheaper trims.

On the motorway

The regular front-wheel drive RAV4 has all the performance most people will reasonably need, with more than enough punch for a short sliproad or a quick overtake. When you floor it, the petrol engine holds its revs and gets quite noisy, but it soon settles down to a quiet cruise.

There’s very little wind or road noise, which is good, and the long electric range means you could even do some motorway driving on EV power alone. But even with a discharged battery, motorway fuel economy is excellent. The assisted driving features mostly work well, though we found the adaptive cruise control holds you a bit too far from the car in front.

On a twisty road

This RAV4 feels a bit more controlled than its predecessor - the body doesn’t lean very much and the steering weights up nicely when you turn into a bend. It’s not very sharp or agile compared with a Ford Kuga, but it does what you expect without any awkward surprises.

You can use Sport mode to add weight to the steering and sharpen the accelerator response, but it’s missing the point when the RAV4 is so comfortable at a relaxed pace.

The four-wheel drive version offers a bit of extra performance and some extra traction on a slippery surface. Though it’s not a proper mud-plugger in the same vein as a Land Rover Discovery Sport, its off-road modes do work surprisingly well, so if you have need to occasionally tackle a rough green lane or a muddy field, this could be a good option. For the tarmac, though, it’s not needed.

Practical for carrying people but the Toyota RAV4’s boot is smaller than all the main alternatives

It’s straightforward to get comfortable in the Toyota RAV4, with a high-set driving position and lots of adjustment in the seat and steering wheel. The dashboard and bonnet are low enough to give you a great view ahead, too.

Space for everyday clutter is excellent. The door bins are large, the glovebox is a good size and so is the under-armrest storage space. There’s a clever reversible lid too, which can be flipped over from a cushioned armrest to a wipe-clean tray.

The best part is how many options there are for odds and ends. As well as the cupholders, you get a storage tray, a sunglasses holder and dedicated space for two phones. On the Icon trim, these are just storage, but Design models get a single wireless charging pad and Excel and GR Sport get two.

Space in the back seats

Tall adults will be happy in the back of the RAV4 with generous headroom and knee room. The cabin’s quite wide, too, so it’s easier to carry three people across the rear bench than it is in a Volkswagen Tiguan - though the centre passenger does get a raised seat and a hump in the floor.

The floor is also quite high owing to the battery storage beneath it, so your knees are raised and under-thigh support isn’t as good as it could be.

Rear passengers get seatback pockets, door bins, two USB-C ports for charging gadgets and a folding armrest with cupholders. ISOFIX mounting points on the outer two seats are easy to reach, though the doors don’t open quite as wide as you’d like for easy access.

Boot space

The RAV4’s 446-litre boot is smaller on paper than all its key rivals. The Volkswagen Tiguan eHybrid has 490 litres of space, the Kia Sportage PHEV 490 litres and the Chery Tiggo 9 a mammoth 819 litres with its third row of seats folded.

The Toyota’s boot is nice and square, and with the rear seats upright you can fit a lot of suitcases. There’s also no loading lip and the seats go pretty flat, so it’s easy to slide larger items in. More annoyingly, the boot floor slopes slightly, so loose items can easily roll out.

All versions have a powered tailgate, a 12V socket in the boot and space beneath the floor to store the load cover.

A straightforward dashboard with easy-to-use infotainment, but the quality of the plastics undermines the car’s price tag

The RAV4’s interior has a chunky, functional look that echoes the Land Cruiser. It isn’t especially colourful or adventurous, but the layout makes sense, and the substantial switches feel pleasant to use.

Toyota has sensibly retained physical temperature controls and proper steering-wheel buttons. Fan speed still requires a prod of the touchscreen, although the controls remain visible rather than disappearing into a submenu.

Every model gets a 12.9-inch central touchscreen and a 12.3-inch digital driver display. The infotainment has clear graphics, responds promptly and is easy to navigate. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also included, so you can use your phone’s apps instead.

The driver display provides plenty of information and is straightforward to operate, although its graphics can look rather dark. Excel’s head-up display is clearer and usefully puts key information closer to your line of sight.

Material quality is harder to defend. There are lots of hard plastics, the glovebox isn’t lined and some blank switches make the cabin feel unfinished.

The trim structure also limits your choices. If you want the surround-view cameras, you have to buy Excel or GR Sport; you can’t add them to a cheaper car. That makes the jump to the more expensive versions feel particularly steep.

The RAV4 comes with a plug-in hybrid engine that combines a 2.5-litre petrol engine and a large 22.7kWh battery. Front-wheel drive models have 272hp, while there’s also a four-wheel drive offering with 309hp. Depending on the model, you get between 75 and 85 miles of electric range - officially - which compares really well with the alternatives.

A Volkswagen Tiguan eHybrid has a maximum of 77 miles, the Chery Tiggo 9 has 87 miles, and the Citroen C5 Aircross a lowly 53 miles. So the RAV is up there with the best.

The most impressive part is how efficient the RAV4 is with a fully depleted battery. In most alternatives, this drops economy to sub-40mpg, but during our testing the RAV4 managed 50-60mpg without trying too hard. That’s excellent for a large SUV and means longer journeys shouldn’t be too arduous on the wallet.

Charging regularly will still give you the best chance of keeping running costs low, though. All models accept up to 11kW AC charging, while Excel and GR Sport models add support for 50kW DC charging from a public charger. This is a very expensive way of doing things, though.

The range and emissions mean the RAV4 sits in the lowest band of company car tax for PHEVs, and first-year road tax is low. A list price of well over £40,000 means all versions pay the expensive car supplement in years two-six of ownership, though.

The current Toyota RAV4 hasn’t yet been crash-tested by Euro NCAP. The previous generation earned five stars, and all of Toyota’s current model line-up has a four- or five-star score, so we’d expect similar results from the RAV4.

All models get Toyota Safety Sense, including automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and lane assistance, plus blind-spot monitoring which on alternatives is usually an extra or reserved for higher trims. Top-spec RAV4s also get front cross-traffic alert.

Toyota provides a nice shortcut to turn off the irritating speed warning, which is good, but other functions such as the lane-keeping require a few too many presses in the infotainment system. The ever-present driver monitoring system is particularly buried, which is a pain because it’s oversensitive, often beeping at you simply for turning your head at a sliproad or roundabout.

The latest RAV4 hasn’t been around long enough for any meaningful reliability data, but signs are good. The brand’s hybrid engines are almost legendarily reliable, and Toyota came fifth for reliability specifically in the 2026 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey despite a 19th-place finish overall.

Toyota’s warranty is a good reason to consider the RAV4 if you keep your cars for a long time. After the general three-year warranty period you can activate another year of cover with each service at a Toyota centre, up to a full decade of cover. It’s applicable to used cars, too, so a three-year-old RAV4 will still have as long a warranty as a brand-new Kia Sportage.