- 5/22/2025
The 2026 Toyota RAV4 Limited Is A Re-Envisioned Hybrid Only Family SUV For The Masses
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00:00A brand new version of America's favorite SUV doesn't come around very often, but for
00:042026 Toyota has done just that.
00:06And today I'm here at their headquarters in Plano, Texas with the brand new 2026 Toyota
00:11RAV4 Limited.
00:12It gets a new look on the outside, standard hybrid power, and enough technology to make
00:15you think twice about buying a Lexus.
00:17Now that we're seeing the new RAV4 in person, let's go ahead and take a detailed first look.
00:30Now before we start talking about the brand new styling for this sixth generation RAV4,
00:35let me go ahead and talk about what's going on underneath the hood because Toyota has basically
00:39gone the same route that we saw in the new generation Camry.
00:42Now I also want to point out this model that we're showing you specifically here is the
00:45Limited grade.
00:46It's part of basically the core trims offering up the LE, XLE, and the Limited.
00:50We'll do a separate video on the more rugged woodland trim, and of course there's a separate
00:54video on the GR Sport.
00:56But for this, you know, Limited trim, let's go ahead and talk about what the powertrain
00:59offerings here.
01:00Because if you guys are looking for electrified power, you're in luck because every RAV4 is
01:04going to come standard with the company's fifth generation Toyota Hybrid Synergy drive
01:07system.
01:08So that combines essentially a 2.5 liter naturally aspirated gasoline direct and port injection
01:13four cylinder.
01:14It either is assisted by two or three electric motors, depending on whether you want to
01:18go for a front wheel drive, which is technically new for 2026, or the available all-wheel drive.
01:24Last year's RAV4, if you got the hybrid, came standard with all-wheel drive.
01:27Toyota says they've increased the output because it's now running on the fifth generation hybrid
01:31system.
01:32You get 226 horsepower on the front wheel drive versions and 236 horsepower when you
01:36guys go for all-wheel drive.
01:37That's a pretty healthy 7 to 17 horsepower increase over the previous generation.
01:41Toyota wasn't ready to talk about fuel economy, but this powertrain in the old model would get
01:46roughly 39 MPG combined.
01:48I wouldn't be surprised to see this model do better when we get those final EPA figures.
01:51Now, Toyota also says they've improved the towing capacity.
01:55Front wheel drive versions will tow up to 1,750 pounds.
01:58However, if you guys go for the all-wheel drive higher trims, Toyota says they've increased
02:01the towing capacity to 3,500 pounds, which should definitely help a lot of owners who
02:05actually plan to tow with their RAV4.
02:06We don't have any performance figures just yet for 0-60 or for the top speed of the vehicle.
02:12We also don't quite have the curb weight figures yet.
02:14The old RAV4 was around 4,000-ish pounds.
02:16I wouldn't be surprised to see this new one get a little bit heavier.
02:19But let's go ahead and close up the hood here, which as you can see, is still held
02:22up by a prop rod, and talk about the rest of the styling because now that we have the
02:27vehicle in a different environment outside as opposed to in that harsh studio environment,
02:32we can go ahead and take a look a little bit more closely at some of the changes.
02:35First of all, this color is called Storm Cloud Metallic.
02:37We've seen this color on other Toyota models before.
02:40The Limited trim, of course, has the core styling cues here.
02:44For the Limited, along with the XLE and the LE trim, are going to have a unique front fascia.
02:48The Limited also gets kind of like their upgraded version of their hammerhead dual LED or full
02:53LED headlights, where you have an LED determining light, LED turn signals, LED projector beams.
02:57The grille, as you can see, has this kind of interesting combination of a closed off section
03:01with some actual functional air intake openings.
03:04Remember, the hybrid is standard across the board, which means there is an internal combustion
03:08engine that needs the cooling.
03:10But I have to point out, if you guys are looking for the plug-in hybrid model, you can't get
03:14the plug-in hybrid on any of the core versions.
03:16It's only available on the woodland and, of course, the sport-oriented versions of the
03:20car.
03:21I also really love how there are fog lights available.
03:22A lot of manufacturers are getting rid of fog lights, but I like to see that Toyota has
03:25kept that here.
03:26The front fascia, in general, to me, looks pretty similar to some of their new EV models,
03:30with the hammerhead design headlights, the kind of closed off grill design.
03:33But it's also kind of upright, very boxy still.
03:36You also get this kind of silver metallic piece here for the lower front skid plate area.
03:40No actual skid plates underneath the car.
03:42And then, Toyota didn't talk about the ground clearance, but I would estimate it should be
03:45pretty similar to the old model, which is just under eight inches.
03:48There is a woodland version, which I'll show you a separate video on, that will have a
03:52little bit more ground clearance, courtesy of its all-terrain tires.
03:55Now, moving around the side profile, you can see the profile here is a little bit boxy,
04:00but it's kind of similar to the previous generation.
04:02Remember, this car is a redesign, but it is kind of built on the same TNGAK architecture.
04:07Toyota basically said they've redesigned the platform, increased the torsional rigidity, strengthened
04:10it, made it safer.
04:12The wheels, as you can see, the Limited is now available with a 20-inch wheel.
04:16Previously, the Limited topped out in a 19-inch wheel, while most of the hybrid models had
04:20an 18-inch wheel.
04:21But this 20 certainly looks good.
04:22I like the bicolor design, the double five-spoke look.
04:25You have a 235x50 R20-inch tire, all-independent suspension, no adaptive dampers.
04:31At least, Toyota wasn't ready to mention if that was available on any of the trims.
04:34I also appreciate there's not too much cladding along the side of the vehicle.
04:38I mean, most SUVs have that.
04:40But if you guys are looking at the woodland trim, that's going to have a slightly different
04:43look to it.
04:44But I think the wheel and tire package looks good.
04:46It kind of fills out the wheel wells nicely.
04:48The Limited also includes a black painted side mirror.
04:50I believe these are also power folding.
04:52You can get a 360 camera.
04:53In fact, this car comes standard with Toyota's latest Safety Sense 4.0.
04:57So now we've kind of upgraded from 3.0.
04:59They weren't ready to quite talk about what 4.0 includes in terms of the upgrades to the safety features,
05:04but we'll have that information as you get closer to the on-sale date.
05:06The roof rails, you can see, are the low-profile aerodynamic style, and you also have a panoramic
05:11glass roof.
05:12Now, that was available on the previous generation, so I'm glad to see it's carried over here.
05:15There are some competitors that still don't even offer that feature.
05:19Something like the Honda CR-V comes to mind.
05:21But as you can see over here, this is where you're going to find your fuel door to obviously
05:24fill the vehicle up with gas.
05:26On the plug-in hybrid models, the passenger side fender will actually have the charge port for
05:31the J1772, and Toyota has also added DC fast charging capability to the plug-ins, which
05:36we'll talk about that in another video.
05:38Now, looking at the rear of the vehicle, you can see the rear design of this car certainly
05:42looks interesting, because I actually was always a fan of the previous fifth-generation
05:46RAV4.
05:47This, to me, almost looks like they've taken some cues from the fourth-generation RAV and
05:51kind of married it with the previous-generation Nissan Rogue.
05:55In fact, it's still very upright.
05:56You have this really cool look for the taillight design.
05:59And I also love how Toyota didn't follow the whole trendiness of having that LED light
06:02bar.
06:03But there's almost like these little vertical individual LEDs, where the taillights are
06:07a full LED.
06:08The turn signal is an LED.
06:09The brake lights and reverse lights are an LED.
06:11I also really like the smoked finish.
06:13I'm not entirely sure if this taillight, this premium taillight, is going to be included
06:16on even the baser trims.
06:18But only time will tell when we see a lower trim.
06:20You can see there's a spoiler, a tasteful spoiler here at the top with the third brake light.
06:24The rear wiper kind of sits at the back here.
06:25And then there's lots of badging here.
06:26You can see HEV stands for Hybrid Electric Vehicle with their Beyond Zero badge.
06:30Again, all-wheel drive because all-wheel drive is technically now an option for the hybrid.
06:34And then there's a limited badge off to the side.
06:36There's a lot of badging.
06:37But the other thing I also noticed, just like the GR Sport, there's a really tiny Toyota
06:40logo here, which kind of reminds me of vehicles back from the 80s and 90s where the manufacturers
06:44did really small badging.
06:45So I kind of like that feature.
06:46But let me know in the comments section below what you guys think of the look of the rear
06:49of the vehicle.
06:50I actually think I may prefer the previous generation, but I also could just need some
06:54time to get used to it.
06:55The rear bumper you can see on the Limited has some silver painted accents, no visible
06:59exhaust tips, but there is a temporary spare tire underneath the floor.
07:03And this is usually where I would also open up the cargo area to show you.
07:05But as you can see, the vehicle is an early prototype model, so you can't actually open
07:09up the tailgate.
07:10If you guys want to see what the trunk space is like, be sure to watch our other videos
07:13on the GR Sport and on the Woodland trim.
07:17Now moving on to the interior of the brand new 2026 Toyota RAV4.
07:21And this Limited trim, as you can see, this color combination isn't exactly my favorite.
07:25Toyota says they'll offer a choice between either a black soft text or a light gray soft
07:29text.
07:30And they also will have like a mineral color on the Woodland trim.
07:33But as you can see, this Limited grade has the black soft text with this kind of ultra suede
07:37fabric here on this little middle portion of the seat back.
07:41The seats themselves have been totally redesigned.
07:43They're heated and ventilated, which is a plus.
07:45And on the driver, you also get a two-person memory function.
07:48The passenger seat also gets an eight-way power, no adjustable lumbar.
07:52But the driver's seat here does get a 10-way power with that two-way lumbar support.
07:55So that's all going to add to the comfort when you guys take this vehicle on longer trips.
07:59But as I get in here and then shut the door, the door has a pretty solid sounding thunk.
08:04And let's go ahead and talk about the interior materials.
08:06This is the Limited trim.
08:07It's the luxury-oriented version of the RAV4.
08:10You can see the door panel material has a soft-touch injection molded plastic.
08:13There's more of that soft text, which is kind of like a gray color here on the actual door
08:17panel.
08:18There's a silver or gray painted plastic door handle.
08:20There's your power mirror controls.
08:21And it looks like there's actually no power folding mirror.
08:23So I take that back from earlier.
08:25You do have one touch up-down for all four windows, which is nice.
08:28And then down in this lower area, you can see it's a little bit hard-touch plastic with some
08:31additional storage.
08:32I also want to point out that this model is an early pre-production car.
08:35So some of the material choices you see in here may actually change.
08:38The rest of the dash, as you can see, has been completely redesigned, starting with the
08:42brand new steering wheel.
08:43It's a three-spoke design steering wheel that offers a manual tilt and telescoping adjustment.
08:47And then in terms of the infotainment system, Toyota has made some pretty nice upgrades here.
08:51You have a fully digital 12.3-inch instrument cluster.
08:54And as you can see, it's a little bit different versus the prior generation because that one
08:57was kind of inset.
08:58This one is now kind of free-floating where it looks like a separate screen.
09:01And then in the center here, you have a choice between either a 10.5-inch infotainment system
09:05or this bigger 12.9-inch system.
09:08So this is the biggest screen that Toyota has ever put on a RAV4.
09:12It also has their latest Toyota Connected Services software behind it, where Toyota has completely
09:17redesigned the graphics.
09:17They've added a home button.
09:19They've also integrated some of the climate control functions into the screen.
09:23So there's a little bit of a button here for climate functions and a volume knob, but some
09:27of it is going to be located in the lower portion of the screen.
09:30You have traditional vents, and this is where the old model had big dials to control the temperature
09:34controls.
09:35Sadly, that's now again moved to these little buttons.
09:38Instead, you have your drive mode selectors here, your EV modes, of course.
09:41You have your different modes here for your trail and snow and normal modes.
09:43So this is kind of a change, but again, it's kind of simplifying the interior layout, although
09:48some may miss the actual knobs.
09:50You do at least still get a volume knob.
09:51You have two wireless phone charging pads here, which is also a plus.
09:54I believe that's only on the higher trims.
09:56Additional storage here.
09:57And then you can see Toyota has put some 45-watt fast charging USB ports right here, along with
10:02your 360 camera button.
10:04And then you can see the shifter.
10:05It almost has adopted a shifter that we've seen in some Volkswagen products, where it's this
10:09kind of like shaver, where you basically just pull this little dial down to go to drive,
10:13push it up to go to reverse, and then push the P button to go park, go to park.
10:17Keep in mind, not all trims will get this kind of electronic shifter.
10:21We'll show you guys the Woodland and the GR Sport that has a traditional shifter.
10:24So kind of keep that in mind as well.
10:26The dashboard materials have a hard touch plastic material.
10:29So this is kind of where I'm finding issue with the interior quality.
10:32Now this is again, an early prototype, but this feels very, very cheap.
10:36There's kind of some smoother plastic over here, but this is at least the padded soft text
10:41from the door panels.
10:41There's some nice storage over here, glove box, you can see opens up, it's a bin style.
10:45It's not, it's damped, but not lined with felt.
10:48And then over here on the rest of the center console, you can see there's a nice padded
10:50center console area, which Toyota actually lets you open from both sides, which is pretty
10:54similar to what we find in some Lexus models.
10:56But there's also another touch where you can actually pull this out, which, so we figured
11:03it out guys.
11:04Not only does it open on either sides, but if you push both of these buttons here, the latches,
11:08it'll actually allow you to remove the entire lid.
11:11And this is where you can easily just flip it over to basically give you like a little
11:15hard shelf here where you can put some items.
11:17Although I have to say, it's not the most frictionless board here, so your stuff's going
11:21to kind of fly around.
11:22So most of you are probably just going to leave it in the normal position here because
11:26this is where it's going to give you a soft armrest pad.
11:28But regardless, it's a really clever feature that I haven't seen any other manufacturer
11:32do.
11:33Above me, you can see that panoramic glass roof lets in some light.
11:35It also opens up to vent air, which I appreciate.
11:37I'm not entirely sure if the pano roof will be available on other trims.
11:41The GR Sport didn't have it.
11:42And the Woodland over there just had a standard sunroof.
11:45But overall, the visibility is good.
11:48The interior quality seems pretty average.
11:50And the audio system in this model is also should be their JBL nine speaker premium sound.
11:55Although this model doesn't have the branding for it because it's an early prototype, I'm
11:58not entirely sure where the audio system availability, the premium one will be available.
12:02But if you guys are also curious, a head-up display is available if you guys go for the
12:06limited hybrid all-wheel drive trim or the plug-in hybrid XSE.
12:11Those are the only two trims to offer the head-up display, which sadly this model is missing
12:15that feature, which it could be missing it along with the JBL sound system.
12:18But overall, as you can see, the interior certainly has a lot of the utilitarian space that people
12:23expect and it also has a big upgrade in technology.
12:25But if you're looking for a more luxurious cabin, you may want to check out its competitors.
12:28But at least Toyota got the touch points rights and the seats are among the most comfortable
12:32you're going to find in the segment.
12:34Now moving on to the back seat of the 2026 RAV4 Limited.
12:37You can see we don't have final specs for the vehicle yet.
12:40However, because the car is roughly the same size as the previous generation, I wouldn't
12:44expect it to stray too far away from like the 38 inches of legroom we had in the old model.
12:48You can see the seats have the same kind of soft text material.
12:51They have a perforated leather.
12:53They are just a one level heated function that's included, of course, on the Limited trim.
12:57And you can also recline the seat ever so slightly.
12:59And you can also fold the seat down to create an almost flat load floor.
13:02Remember the battery pack for this model lives underneath the back seat of the vehicle.
13:07But you can see the flat floor that it almost creates should be pretty nice if you guys plan
13:11to use this to haul a bunch of stuff.
13:13Now getting back here, you can see, let's go ahead and close up the door and talk about
13:16the materials.
13:18Just like in the front seat area, you have a soft touch injection molded plastic, which
13:21is a nice touch.
13:22More of that soft text in the gray painted plastic door handle, along with the window
13:25controls, which are one touch for all four.
13:27And they're also illuminated, which is nice.
13:29Additional storage over here, of course, and then in terms of the front seats, I actually
13:33like the way they're sculpted because they don't take up too much knee room space.
13:36You also have two storage cubbies here, like I mentioned earlier, single level heated seats
13:39with two 15 watt USB-C charging pads, along with rear seat air vents, which is a nice touch.
13:45The floor here is not completely flat, obviously, but there's plenty of space for me to stretch
13:49out and I can also cross my legs pretty easily.
13:51This is not the biggest back seat in the segment, but it certainly is pretty usable and it's also
13:56very much average.
13:57If I fold this down, you can see there's an armrest with two cupholders and then above
14:00me here you can see the glass roof does take up a little bit of headroom space, but I appreciate
14:04how it comes all the way back into the second row.
14:06This area is the only part that actually opens up to vent air, but that's five foot seven.
14:10I have a solid maybe two, three inches of additional headroom clearance.
14:12So again, for those of you who are coming from the old RAV4 into the new one, this should
14:16have pretty similar amounts of rear seat space.
14:20Now with over 475,000 units sold last year, the RAV4 was without a doubt the best-selling
14:25non-pickup truck here in America.
14:28This outsold a lot of its rivals by as much as 100,000 units.
14:31Even something like the CR-V was just over 400,000 units.
14:35So clearly Toyota has the winning formula right for the RAV4.
14:38This is one of the first compact crossover SUVs to come to America back in 1996 and the
14:44company essentially wanted to play it safe, but they also wanted to elevate the RAV4 into
14:48the modern era because while the old model was still one of my favorite vehicles, especially
14:52if you guys were looking for an electrified version, it was starting to lag a little bit
14:56behind in terms of technology and some competitors were starting to catch up to it in terms of range
15:00and the powertrain specs.
15:02So after finally seeing the brand new RAV4 in person, specifically this limited trim,
15:06this is going to be the core model.
15:08A lot of people tend to buy a limited or an SE or an XSE trim level.
15:12Unfortunately, Toyota didn't have an XSE or an SE for us to see in person.
15:15We'll be hoping to see some of one of those vehicles sometime later this year.
15:19We also should be driving this car sometime in early October and then the vehicle will be
15:23going on sale shortly after that.
15:25Now, if you guys are looking to get your hands on the brand new 2026 RAV4, you're going to
15:29have to wait until this fall, like I said, sometime in either October or November.
15:33And the company wasn't ready to talk about pricing just yet.
15:35However, we can kind of speculate because the base model of the 2025 version starts at
15:39around $28,000.
15:40The hybrid starts at around $32,000.
15:43Because the base engine is now gone, the hybrid version is the base model.
15:47However, there is a new front wheel drive model, which could signify that the hybrid pricing
15:51could come down to maybe the low $30,000 range.
15:54But of course, this is the limited trim with all the bells and whistles.
15:57I would estimate that this model here would probably be well over $40,000.
16:01Well, if you guys want the plug-in hybrid versions, those are going to probably be about $10,000
16:05more because that's based on what the previous generation was.
16:08Well, with all that said, I hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview on the brand new
16:122026 Toyota RAV4 Limited.
16:14If you're also looking to see the latest cars I'm testing, be sure to follow me on Instagram
16:17at redline underscore reviews.
16:18Like us on Facebook.
16:19And as always, guys, please keep subscribing to the Redline Reviews YouTube channel for all
16:22the latest reviews.
16:23Thank you so much for watching.
16:24I'll catch you all in the next video.
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