uleite wrote:
I see this is an older thread, but thought I'd check in to see if anyone here has added a 3rd row to their Rav4 EV either through Little Passenger Seat or via the OEM 2006-12 part order/install.
I also want to double check whether anyone sees an issue with performing this addition on a leased vehicle.
I have a similar situation as a previous poster- family of 6 w/ 4kids between ages 2 and 8. The Rav4 EV is my commuting and errand vehicle.
However, I find that on weekends, the EV sits in the garage while our gas guzzling Sienna takes on all the miles to transport the whole family together - 99% of which the Rav can handle without any range issues.
Looks like it would be a quick payback (less than 2 years) with van mileage avoidance: At 75 miles/ weekend = 3750 miles/yr --> 20 miles/gal --> ~190 gallons = ~$800/yr in fuel
I never ended up doing it but I still believe it is very possible.
The two main things that would possibly complicate the "factory" install using OEM parts would be that the third row shoulder straps mount to what I would refer to as the C-pilar instead of the seats. I never took a interior body panel off but my suspicion is that the mounting points would be there for the seat belt but you probably would need to round up the interior body panel in addition to the other parts. I hope that makes sense.
The second and possibly harder challenge would be that the gas version had some metal loops that were welded to the floor. The purpose of these loops were to give the third row something to latch onto when it was folded into the floor in the down position. These would likely never be needed if the seat was always in the up position and ready for passengers but if you ever needed to fold them down for cargo space and got in a accident, I could see those seats coming out of the floor at great force.
The Little Passenger Seats are a good option if you did not care about the functionality of folding them into the floor. They also have the benefit of having the seat belts mounted to the seat instead of the wall. My main draw back with them is that I believe I could do it with factory junk yard parts for probably cheaper and it would look OEM (except fabric as the RAV4 EV is custom fabric).
I'm not a leasing expert but my plan was to reverse as much as possible upon a lease return. The "factory" setup seemed more reversible to me.
Please let me know if you get serious about doing this.