Toyota unveils all-hybrid redesign for America’s top-selling RAV4 SUV
Toyota Motor announced Tuesday night that its best-selling RAV4 SUV in the U.S. will undergo a major redesign and be offered exclusively as a hybrid starting with the 2026 model.
The world’s largest automaker said the 2026 Toyota RAV4 only will be offered as a hybrid or plug-in hybrid, eliminating a traditional gas engine in the vehicle for the first time. It will still have a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, but with hybrid technologies such as batteries and electric motors, News.Az reports, citing CNBC.
Despite a slower-than-expected adoption of all-electric vehicles, automakers have looked to hybrid models — which combine electric vehicle technologies with traditional internal combustion engines — to increase performance and help them meet fuel economy regulations.
Toyota, which started offering hybrids with the Toyota Prius in late 1990s, has been a global leader and advocate for hybrid adoption, despite an industry push in recent years for automakers to exclusively offer all-electric vehicles.
Toyota’s electrified vehicle sales in the U.S. — including hybrids, plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles — accounted for 43.1% of the company’s 2.3 million units sold domestically in 2024.
RAV4 sales increased 9.3% last year to nearly 475,200 units sold, including a 29.3% increase in RAV4 hybrids and 19.3% gain in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Roughly half of RAV4 sales last year were hybrids.
Sales of all-electric vehicles and hybrid models reached a record 20% of new car and truck sales in the U.S. last year, to 3.2 million electrified vehicles, according to auto data firm Motor Intelligence. That encompasses 1.9 million hybrid vehicles, including plug-in models, and 1.3 million all-electric models.
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