I finally saw a Rav4 EV in the wild!

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SeaMonster

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 27, 2012
Messages
140
Location
Tiburon, CA
I have owned my Rav4 EV since October and I finally saw another in the wild. This was the first! I was driving up 101 through San Mateo and there she was: All white, just like mine. I waved as I passed the lady driving, and I think she was a bit confused at first as to why this stranger was waving. But pretty quickly she figured it out and smiled and waved back. In traffic, we each moved ahead and then behind the other with the flow of traffic. And then she got off at SFO. Lately I have been seeing Tesla Model S's everywhere, so I am glad to finally see another Rav4 EV owner. I continued north...
 
I've owned mine since November and have yet to see another in San Jose with over 1,000,000 population. Speaks volumes to further illustrate how poorly they are selling. At the same time, I am starting to see Tesla Model S sedans "out in the wild" almost everywhere.

SeaMonster, just curious, how is the "buyback" going?
 
miimura said:
I also saw a white one today driving in front of "Doggieville" off Shoreline in Mountain View.
Wow. I used to work near there and never heard of the place. It wouldn't surprise me to spot EVs around that area since the Googleplex isn't far away...
 
hey all!
we just got a rav4ev, silver!
we live in burlingame near the airport.
my wife drives it up and down 101 alot and on el camino!

if we see you, we'll certainly wave!
 
SeaMonster said:
I have owned my Rav4 EV since October and I finally saw another in the wild. This was the first!
Funny - shortly after I read this on Wednesday I also saw my very first Rav4 EV on the road! It was white, had carpool lane stickers, and was traveling north on White Oak Blvd at around 2:45 p.m.

I was in my wife's Infiniti FX50 at the time, unfortunately, so I couldn't trade knowing looks with the happy driver (who I couldn't see, anyway).

BTW, I used to never see a Volt on the road, but now rarely a day goes by without me seeing at least one.
 
seamonster,

my sister just bought a rav4ev today!

she is going to comute from sf to san rafael daily
so if you see a white rav4ev buzzing up and down 101 by you in marin county,
that may be her!

just fyi
 
gary2020 said:
seamonster,

my sister just bought a rav4ev today!

she is going to comute from sf to san rafael daily
so if you see a white rav4ev buzzing up and down 101 by you in marin county,
that may be her!

just fyi
Excellent! Another Marinite. I live in Tiburon and commute to Sunnyvale a couple of times a week. I'll hopefully see her on the road. My kids have been studiously searching for another Rav4 EV, but they don't commute with me so they did not experience my one sighting. After I bought the car, they tried counting all Rav4s but quickly became overwhelmed. I find it interesting that I never really noticed Rav4s before buying one. Of course, I had seen them, but they never really registered. Now that I have one I realize that they are EVERYWHERE! Funny how our brains work that way.

Do let your sister know that once she gets her White stickers, she can get $2 off on the Golden Gate Bridge.
 
Oh, since I mentioned kids, here is the kid's favorite Electric Car song. When I first got the car, we'd drive around listening to this on every trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAv6M1Bai0c

By an incredibly cool band that I have listened to since college (long time ago) and they now have kids albums.
 
yes, i remember that band...so berkeley-ish, in a good way:)

we were at my folks for dinner so there was my sister, me (both rav4ev) and my brother in law in his tesla S-
that's a pretty hi density of electric vehicles/owners.

thanks for the info on the GG bridge.
do you have to register with the fast pass folks?

also, with the sticker, i suppose a single person in teh EV can be in the carpool lane on let's say 101.

with that sticker, can you be in the carpool lane on any of the bridges as well?
if so, do you get some discount on bridge tolls other than GG, like the bay bridge, san mateo, dumbarton, etc?
thanks
 
With the white stickers you can drive in any of the HOV lanes on the freeways, even with just one person in the car.

On the GG bridge, carpool rates only apply during carpool hours. There is one lane marked "carpool" and you must drive through that and you must have Fastrak. Green stickers don't qualify on the GG Bridge. Since there are now no toll takers on the GG bridge, you can just use your license plate for normal tolls. But that doesn't work for the carpool rate, you must have FasTrak.

I am pretty sure you can also do the carpool lane on all of the other (CalTrans) bridges with FasTrak. I drove through the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge's carpool lane the other day and alarms didn't go off. But I very rarely go across any bridge other than the GGB during carpool hours.

I don't know if any of the bridges have any technology to count whether you have enough people to qualify as a carpool or if they have technology to identify the white stickers. I think there is just the fear/pain of getting caught, just like in the HOV lanes of the freeways.
 
There was a white Rav4 EV parked on my street several blocks from my house in Davis yesterday! Wasn't there this morning. Don't know if a neighbor bought one or if it was a visitor....
 
Have yet to see one in the wild. I drive on Freemont and Foothill almost daily to Palo Alto. Several Model S's every day. I was a rez holder. Decided on the Rav4 instead. Easier to get the 2 year old in and out of. :)
 
moderate said:
Have yet to see one in the wild. I drive on Freemont and Foothill almost daily to Palo Alto. Several Model S's every day. I was a rez holder. Decided on the Rav4 instead. Easier to get the 2 year old in and out of. :)
Just keep your eyes peeled. You'll see one of us eventually - especially in that neck of the woods.
 
Come down to the Intuit campus in San Diego, and you will see 3 silver ones, with 2 more being brought down this Friday for a total of 5 silver ones.
We also have another coworker working on a deal for a white one ...So, potentially 6 of them ....
You will be able to tell mine apart with the sticker that says; "Powered by Tesla", not to be mistaken with my coworkers silver one that says; "Tesla Inside" :p
With the great deal going on right now, we just could not resist not to get into a poor man's Model S with the roominess of an SUV.
Cheers,
-ray
 
Well as far as I know, i own the first one at Google. A friend (who works on the same floor as me in the same group) bought a White one in Palo Alto the day before I bought the shoreline blue one in Fremont.

We plan on sharing a Level 2 charger beucase i get in early and she cant ever find a charger when she comes in a couple hours later. SO i'll just move mine at lunchtime when its "full" :) There will be more chargers soon, but the collection of EVs at Google is growing quite quickly.
 
SeaMonster said:
With the white stickers you can drive in any of the HOV lanes on the freeways, even with just one person in the car.

On the GG bridge, carpool rates only apply during carpool hours. There is one lane marked "carpool" and you must drive through that and you must have Fastrak. Green stickers don't qualify on the GG Bridge. Since there are now no toll takers on the GG bridge, you can just use your license plate for normal tolls. But that doesn't work for the carpool rate, you must have FasTrak.

I am pretty sure you can also do the carpool lane on all of the other (CalTrans) bridges with FasTrak. I drove through the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge's carpool lane the other day and alarms didn't go off. But I very rarely go across any bridge other than the GGB during carpool hours.

I don't know if any of the bridges have any technology to count whether you have enough people to qualify as a carpool or if they have technology to identify the white stickers. I think there is just the fear/pain of getting caught, just like in the HOV lanes of the freeways.

Gary2020: you can drive thru any of the bridges' carpool lanes if you have Fastrak. A little-known fact about Fastrak is that you don't need the transponder to go thru toll booths if you've registered your license plate # in your Fastrak account -- something you have to do anyways because every once in awhile the transponder doesn't work and they'll mail you a citation of toll + $25 penalty. A camera automatically reads your license plate if it doesn't detect a transponder.

You can use it to drive in the Lexus Lanes (the paid fast lanes) on Hwy 680 south in Sunol/Fremont legally AND for free.
 
mudpie, while it is true that you don't need a transponder to take advantage of FasTrak if your license plate is registered, you DO need a transponder to get the carpool rate on the GGB. I have no idea how the CalTrans bridges work for carpool rates. But for the GGB, the carpool rate is only available with a transponder. (Applies to real carpools as well as us with white stickers.)
 
Haven't seen any other outside of the San Diego meetup except one other one in the past 2 months. Now today, saw one on Manhattan Beach Blvd in Gardena this morning and another parked at the Century Towers in Century City in the afternoon. Both Blizzard Pearls. Anyone want to claim?
 
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