Rav4EV as your only car? What else do you own?

[n3ckf]

So... I had an accident in my "non" electric car this weekend which will likely total the car... (since its 23 years old and has 341K miles on it).

So now i'm down to the Rav4EV as my only vehicle (for a while).

Is there anyone else out there who has one of these as their only vehicle?
I must admit, if I hadn't owned the vehicle for over a year now, i would've been really scared to be in this state, however the Rav4EV does about everything i need to regularly do, so its not that scary.

I will probably pick up another vehicle for longer range trips though, and i'm wondering what other owners use for that, especially anyone who has bought their other vehicle "after" they already owned an electric vehicle?

 

[DevinL]

The RAV4 is our long range car. Our other car is a Focus Electric which has half the range. Before the RAV4, we had the Focus and a LEAF and did fine with that arrangement too (mostly thanks to CHAdeMO infrastructure).

That said, if I were forced to buy an ICE for road trips and whatnot I'd look at a mid-2000s Subaru Forester. One in good condition should run about $5k. They're the ideal road trip car because they're spacious, comfortable, have AWD, are safe, and are incredibly reliable.

 

[miimura]

Sorry to hear about your accident. I hope everyone is OK.

It really depends on your family situation and lifestyle. It sounds like you are a single person, mostly because you didn't say otherwise. As a couple, one EV and one ICE-V is trivial to manage. When I bought the RAV4 EV, we intended to replace the older car, a 2001 Passat Wagon. However, we decided at that time that we should keep that one since it was the more suitable road trip car. I traded in a 2004 Accord Sedan to buy the RAV. Now, my wife and I have been talking about our next vehicle and it will definitely be all electric. We have concluded that we have no need to own an ICE vehicle. If the Passat can hang on until the Tesla Model 3 is available, we will probably get one of those. The main reason we are comfortable going all electric is that we rarely take road trips. The only places we drive outside of the Bay Area is Tahoe or LA and those are once a year or less. We are fine with renting an ICE-V for those trips. Most of the time when we vacation, we go far enough away that we fly.

 

[TonyWilliams]

The only places we drive outside of the Bay Area is Tahoe or LA and those are once a year or less. We are fine with renting an ICE-V for those trips. Most of the time when we vacation, we go far enough away that we fly.

Fly for really long trips.

Rent for trips not easily done with the Rav4.

That's it... I don't own an oil burner car.

 

[riderbike37]

We are in the process of deciding whether to keep our ICE, a 2012 Mazda3 hatchback. I'm leaning heavily toward going EV only and renting for longer trips. Keeping the additional car costs us about $325/month, including finance payment and insurance. Rationally, I just don't see the expense of renting a car about 8 weekends a year coming in any way close to the cost of keeping the ICE. I think I will have to make a case to convince my girlfriend, though.

 

[Incredulocious]

I still have my gas-burning, all-wheel drive 2009 RAV4 for long range trips. Mostly that's for going to Tahoe but also for getting to various remote locations around the state (backpacking, mountain-biking, etc.) where there are not and most likely won't ever be charge stations. For around the SF Bay Area though, it's super easy to get around with the 125+ miles range, even coming over the hill from Santa Cruz, where I live.

It does feel pretty silly to have two RAV4's (one gas, one electric)! So of course I'm looking forward to something to replace both. Something with AWD, 300-ish or more miles range (to get out and back from remote sites) and fast/super-charging capabilities... but nothing as large as the Tesla Model S or X, thank you. And it doesn't need to be an SUV, just room enough inside for bikes and gear. (Like my old LEAF or my old Audi A3.) That might be the Model III... or maybe something from Nissan or Audi. We'll see... too bad Toyota doesn't appreciate what they have with the RAV4 EV, eh?

In the meantime, it'll sure help to get CHADeMO capability with the existing RAV4 EV. Go Tony!

 

[Dsinned]

A good choice for a 2nd car in your situation would be a new (or used) VOLT. Not quite 100% electric, but a far cry from being anywhere near a pure ICE car. I own both a RAV4 EV and a VOLT and don't really have any issues if they were my only cars. The Volt has an "extended" range of ~350 miles for trips on a full tank of gas. Its limitation is only four passenger seats.

 

[sbportech]

I use the Rav for commuting only. We have a Porsche cayenne as our long trip car, far from fuel friendly. We have taken the rav to my parents house once, 95 miles one way, but there is only one charger in town, however I installed a plug to charge at there house so that will ease the stress. If the cayenne was not paid for I would just rent when I needed a longer trip car.

 

[arnolddeleon]

Our daily drivers are 2011 Nissan LEAF and the 2012 Toyota RAV4-EV. We still own a 2002 Toyota Prius that doesn't get driven for months at a time. I have to actively find a reason to run it. If the decision was solely mine the Prius would be gone. Before we got the 2012 I drove 2002 RAV4-EV. When our two EVs were the LEAF and the classic RAV4-EV the Prius got used for trips to SF, Gilroy or Santa Cruz. The new 2012 RAV4-EV with the significantly longer range has taken over those duties.

arnold

 

[cossie1600]

16K in one year on the RAV4, 15K on the Leaf, 2K miles on my gas car (it was mostly driving to and from the race track)

 

[mark_rivers19]

ICE : Land Rover Range Rover HSE, Lexus RX 350
BEVs : Tesla Roadster, Tesla Model S 85kw and Toyota RAV4 EV

We drive to Vancouver, BC ( From LA area) 3 to 4 times a year since we have family there.
Our go to cars are the SUVs/CUVs since we want to do a 9-10hr/day x 2 days of travel.

the BEVs are used 4-5times a week, thanks to their HOV stickers!
the ICE, in addition to road trips, tend to be our weekend ride.

i maybe in the minority here who completely understand Toyota/ Hyundai push for a FCEV vs a BEV.
Having a 400 mile tank and filling up in less than 5 minutes is a necessity if you only have one car and you like to do road trips.

 

[pchilds]

We have 2011 Nissan LEAF and the 2012 Toyota RAV4-EV. We still own a 2007 Toyota Prius, that doesn't get driven much. The wife will take the Prius our every month or so, usually for a 20-30 mile drive.

 

[Michael Bornstein]

Besides the 2012 RAV4, we have a 2014 Volt. I ride the RAV to work 15-20mi RT, and the wife drives the Volt. We only use the gas engine on the Volt when we drive to LA, about once a month. I am hoping to get Tony's L3 upgrade for the RAV and start using it for the LA trips (see my recent post on the sad state of L3 stations in LA)

 

[fooljoe]

We have 2011 Nissan LEAF and the 2012 Toyota RAV4-EV. We still own a 2007 Toyota Prius, that doesn't get driven much. The wife will take the Prius our every month or so, usually for a 20-30 mile drive.

I'm in almost the identical situation except the ICE is a Mazda5 instead of a Prius. I've kept it around for occasional long trips (maybe 2-3x a year) but lately it's been more trouble than it's worth. It only gets driven from one side of the street to the other for street sweeping, and sometimes I just leave the engine idling for an hour or so to keep the 12v battery from draining. Plus it seems every time I do need to drive it something goes wrong that requires $500 or so at the mechanic.

So I'm ready to go full-EV and just rent/borrow an ICE for long trips. If anyone wants an '07 Mazda5 with low miles let me know! :lol:

 

[TonyWilliams]

Plus it seems every time I do need to drive it something goes wrong that requires $500 or so at the mechanic.

So I'm ready to go full-EV and just rent/borrow an ICE for long trips. If anyone wants an '07 Mazda5 with low miles let me know! :lol:

I did have the minivan for about six months, with 142,000 miles. I had spent oodles of money putting new seals in the motor, spark plugs, camshaft belt, transmission flush, etc. Then, I went to drive it one day after sitting for a bit. Dead 12 volt and semi flat tire.

Yep, I'd rather rent a new car, and if there's a problem, I call them to come and get their car.

 

[boredcleaner]

In addition to the RAV, we have a PiP. If the Model 3 was out, we would likely have had only BEV.