WHAT A MACHINE!!!

Just pulled the trigger on one of these bad boys and I am extremely stoked. All I can say is, WHAT A MACHINE!!!

The RAV4 EV drives like a dream . . . it's smooth as silk and quieter than a cemetery!

This car absolutely PREFORMS like a bat outta hell!!! The partnership between Toyota and Tesla was a marriage made in Heaven!
Don't let the somewhat ordinary looking RAV4 body fool you into thinking this is in any way a soccer Mom's grocery getter car. The RAV4 EV flat out FLYS down the road like a lion in sheeps clothing. The acceleration is frankly . . . simply EXALERATING!!!

All the electronic gadgetry build into the dash is almost overwhelming. I am only just beginning to understand all the it has to offer. The owners manual is over 500 pages!!! There is a separate manual for the Navigation System which is nearly another 300 pages. Both are instructional and very well written for good reason . . . this car is practically a super computer on wheels!

Impressive specs . . . 0 to 60 = 7 secs, Top Speed = 100mph, Drag Coefficient = 0.30, Maximum Battery Capacity = 41.8kWh

Average electric range is CONSERVATIVELY rated at 102 miles! Actually it should be a lot more, after the battery is fully "extended" charged to its full capacity; a so-called "standard" charge (at 230V) only replenishes the battery to 35kWh, good for 90+ miles of electric range. After the dealer gave my car just a standard (topping off) charge, my range meter indicated 124miles!

It takes a whopping 44 hours to recharge on the "as equipped" 115V charge cord. That drops to a much more reasonable 5 or 6 hours on a 30A or 40A L2 charger respectively. A Leviton's L2 charger (30 or 40A) is highly recommended by Toyota.

However, there is a related charging issue I am having during the honeymoon period with my RAV4 EV. Will my SPX Power Express EVSE L2 charging station I'm already using to overnight charge my Chevy Volt be compatible for charging my new RAV4 EV? Both cars are equipped with the industry standard, SAE J1772 charging port, but there is a very recent service bulletin out from Toyota warning their CA RAV4 EV dealers and customers to beware of certain public charging stations that cause the car to unexpectedly deactivate due to some sort of battery charging non-compatibility fault code.

I am almost afraid to try my SPX Power Express in fear of frying a very expensive Tesla battery pack! SPX and my local Toyota dealer have been of no help in this clarifying this situation. In fact, the dealer would not even allow me to take a test drive to my house to enable me to verify compatibility. Toyota lists serval other OEM chargers, as well as their own in-house Leviton brand, unfortunately the SPX Power Express Level 2 is not referenced on that list. This boils down to a "use at your own risk" situation.

Stay tuned . . .

I just posted this on another thread.

I tried to charge our rav4 EV on the SPX chargers at work back in September and I got the warning light. Took it to dealer. Dealer had to call corp and corp had to call Tesla. I found out a lot of info and I also now have a good in with Toyota corp.

I did speak to the people at SPX and they did said it does not work with the charger.

Thanks for the info. Not what I was hoping to hear, but thanks nevertheless. Hopefully, one or both companies will "do the right thing" and come up with a fix for their customers. We seem to be the first of perhaps many others yet to come that have this problem. If you hear anything more from your contacts, please let me know. TIA.