I was in the area and decided to finally drive the Rav4 EV so I could compare it to my model S, and maybe see what the drivetrain noise was that some Rav 4 EV owners were talking about. In case anyone is interested, the car I drove was blue, vin#1656 at Roseville Toyota.
Since I was comparing this to the Model S, I put it into sport mode right away, and left it there. The Rav4 EV has very good power, especially from a dead stop(A bit more low end than a V6 version, nowhere near a Model S). There is a lot of torque steer, but overall the car drives great. The GOM wasn't as bad as I had expected (not as good as the rated range on a model S, but certainly much better than the Leaf's). After almost 6k miles of driving a Tesla, the regen on the brake was downright unbearable. Putting the shifter in B mode helped some, but it was still very weak. For me, one pedal driving is the only way to go.
Overall, the Rav 4 EV is a GREAT vehicle, especially at the prices that we have seen. The particular car I drove had a very quiet drivetrain, which seemed even quieter than my model S(even at 60-65 mph). Once Toyota/Tesla get the Gateway ECU issue sorted out, I may be in the market for one of these, as it is much more useful in a gravel road/ton of snow scenario that I face. It's too bad that Toyota doesn't realize that this conversion(cobbled up in less than 2 years)drives better than any of their ICE vehicles. Pretty sad really.
Since I was comparing this to the Model S, I put it into sport mode right away, and left it there. The Rav4 EV has very good power, especially from a dead stop(A bit more low end than a V6 version, nowhere near a Model S). There is a lot of torque steer, but overall the car drives great. The GOM wasn't as bad as I had expected (not as good as the rated range on a model S, but certainly much better than the Leaf's). After almost 6k miles of driving a Tesla, the regen on the brake was downright unbearable. Putting the shifter in B mode helped some, but it was still very weak. For me, one pedal driving is the only way to go.
Overall, the Rav 4 EV is a GREAT vehicle, especially at the prices that we have seen. The particular car I drove had a very quiet drivetrain, which seemed even quieter than my model S(even at 60-65 mph). Once Toyota/Tesla get the Gateway ECU issue sorted out, I may be in the market for one of these, as it is much more useful in a gravel road/ton of snow scenario that I face. It's too bad that Toyota doesn't realize that this conversion(cobbled up in less than 2 years)drives better than any of their ICE vehicles. Pretty sad really.
