2019 Toyota RAV4 to be "more of a proper SUV" than its predecessor
More aggressively styled SUV comes with hybrid or petrol powertrains only
Toyota unveiled its all new RAV4 SUV at the New York motor show with a promise from its chief engineer Yoshikazu Saeki that "it will be more of a proper SUV" than the car it replaces.
Despite the fact that the current RAV4, a rival to the Ford Kuga and Nissan Qashqai, has become the best-selling car in North America, beaten only by pick-up trucks in the sales charts, Saeki-San is setting his sights even higher. "I don’t believe the current car was very successful at all. I’ll consider a car to have been successful when there are no further advancements to make."
The new car is not only based on Toyota’s new TNGA platform but within that it moves up a size and now sits on underpinnings now more closely related to the large Camry sedan than those of a Prius. Two engines are available at launch, a 2.0-litre petrol and 2.5-litre hybrid though only the latter is confirmed for the UK when sales begin in around a year’s time.
No figures have been provided for the new hybrid engine but it seems certain to be near identical to the same unit in the Camry where it produces 204bhp, a 10 per increase over the old engine. In the Camry it improves fuel consumption over its predecessor by between 20-30% depending on how you measure it. Either way this should ensure Toyota is able to claim combined consumption for the RAV4 of close to 70mpg with a sub 100g/km CO2 output by current means of measurement.
A second hybrid powertrain is expected to be offered with the RAV4, but it's not yet known whether it'll be of 1.8-litre or 2.0-litre capacity. Both of those engines are offered with the recently revealed new Auris.
In the absence of any diesel model (Toyota has pledged to phase out all oil burners before the year's close), the car is likely to come with a smaller petrol engine variant, possibly a relatively of the 1.8-litre hybrid already available in the Auris hatchback. Both front and four wheel drive will be available.
Compared to the current car, the new RAV4 is wider and sits on a longer wheelbase to improve ride quality and interior space, but is both shorter and lower. The cabin has a far more luxurious feel, a wide raft of additional sensor and radar-based active safety systems and a bigger boot.
Whether that is enough to displace the Nissan Qashqai as Britain’s best-selling compact SUV remains to be seen: much will depend on Toyota’s bet that diesel will shortly cease to be major player in the market. The brand is so set on this plan that it has ditched several diesel models in recent months, including the slow-selling Auris diesel.
Q&A Yoshikazu Saeki, Toyota RAV4 chief engineer
What was your chief priority when engineering this car?
My biggest issue was to bring to back to being a true SUV. I want to focus on it being an SUV everyone can rely on wherever they can live, whatever the conditions they find. It may be that very few customers use it off road, but it is important to me that they know that they could and that the car would be tough and capable enough to cope with it.
What do you say to customers who still want an SUV with the engine characteristics of a diesel?
The new hybrid gives great fuel consumption and also responds perfectly to driver inputs, which is not possible with normal petrol engines.
Will there be a plug-in hybrid version?
We are not currently working on a plug-in for the RAV4 because we need to consider the power, performance and pricing of such a car and how it fits into this class. I don’t think that balance has yet been made. But the technology is easy to convert so when the conditions are right we can consider it quite easily.
Will the new RAV4 be more fun to drive?
Of course! With our Takumi master craftsman system our drivers have developed the driving characteristics of the car not based on data but human feel: steering feel and chassis feel are now very important to us, and that is a philosophical shift from the last car.
Is the car lighter than the previous RAV4?
It is 4% lighter despite being packed with additional features and functions that were not available in the previous car.
Will there be a more high performance version in future?
Now that we have our new hybrid and can combine it with a sports chassis we can in future develop the car further in this direction.
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