Now into a second calendar year, the Toyota Rav4 EV has been on the market for over 7 months. Sales did slow through the winter months, but now they are picking up again.
The speed at which the Rav4 EV is selling becomes more obvious when reading some of the different posts from forum members on the troubles they had insuring their Rav4 EV.
Some owners reported having troubles mainly because the Rav4 EV wasn’t in the insurance companies systems – when the insurance agent went to search for the rate cards, the computer returned an error saying it didn’t know that vehicle. Many insurance companies are now set up to insure brand new electric vehicles.
Some others said that insurance wasn’t an issue, but titling the vehicle was – the state’s Department of Licensing wouldn’t give temporary tags, so owners had to wait up to 3 weeks for Toyota finance to send the paperwork.
Back in September 2012, the first month the Rav4 EV was for sale, there were 61 vehicles sold. That number declined through January 2013, and is now on the rise. For March 2013, Toyota posted sales of 133 Toyota Rav4 EV sales!
Although that number is over double the number from the previous month, sales are still relatively slow. Toyota said it would limit production of the Rav4 EV to 2600 units over 3 years – even spread over the 3 years that is 866 vehicles per year. In the first 7 months of sales, there have been 404 Rav4 EVs sold – so 800 could be reached with 5 good months of sales.
Since the Toyota Rav4 EV is currently only for sale in California, some customers from out of state have purchased one and taken it back to their home state. The biggest issue with this is that the Rav4 EV is certified for licensing in California, so out of state buyers need to do an out of state emissions control inspection – not that the electric Rav4 should have any issues passing it!
