Toyota’s Prius had its full glow-up redesign for 2023, and now the automaker is switching up its name, too. The 2025 Prius Prime will now go by a more straightforward name: Prius Plug-in Hybrid. The same goes for the Rav4 Prime, which is now called the Rav4 Plug-in Hybrid.
Toyota says the name change “is intended to help consumers more easily identify the powertrain choices” among Prius and Rav4 models. The 2025 versions of the Prius Plug-in will also have an updated “PHEV” (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) badge on the rear. The Rav4, meanwhile, will no longer have a blue halo in the Toyota logo on both the front and rear.
The specs for the new 2025 Prius models seem unchanged otherwise — the plug-in version still has a 13.6 kWh battery with a max range of 44 miles of electric-only driving on the SE trim.
Image: Toyota
The Rav4 has an 18.5kWh battery with 42 miles of EV range, plus it supports 6.6kW charging speeds, which takes about 2 hours to charge up on a Level 2 charger (the Prius takes about 4 hours).
Toyota has been pushing a hybrid-first agenda lately and taking the wait-and-see approach with EVs. The automaker has only launched one ho-hum EV model in the bZ4x, but may change course with the promise of a three-row electric SUV for the US soon.
source https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/26/24254955/toyota-prius-rav4-plug-in-hybrid-drops-prime-2025