2026 Toyota RAV4 PHEV GR Sport Review | Toyota Expert Jon Wimhurst Walkthrough

Time Stamps

00:00 Introducing the 2026 RAV4 PHEV GR Sport

00:13 Plug-in hybrid benefits and 100km EV range

00:43 What makes the GR Sport different

01:15 GR grille, badging, wheels and brake calipers

01:47 Rear wing, PHEV badge and parking sensors

02:08 Retuned suspension and sportier handling

02:35 Charge port and three ways to charge

03:39 Public charging and Toyota Connected Services

04:20 Revised steering, paddle shifters and interior

04:50 Head-up display, digital mirror and phone charging

05:48 Reversible centre console tray and heated features

06:24 EV, Auto EV/HV and Hybrid driving modes

06:46 227kW combined output and hybrid operation

07:56 JBL audio, displays and safety technology

08:56 Moonroof operation

09:37 AWD system, wider track and handling setup

10:07 GR Sport seat design

10:31 Included charging cables

11:30 Rear brace and chassis rigidity

11:58 Test drive invitation  

(0:00 - 0:13)

Hi everyone, John from Downtown Toyota, and welcome back to our little channel. We're

gonna show you another one of our new RAV4s, and one thing that we've been waiting on is

the new plug-in. So we all know fuel costs are up and down, and no one really knows what's

gonna happen with them.

(0:13 - 0:30)

So what if there was an alternative to normal fuel? We have hybrid, we know that works

exceptionally well. Now, you've got another option, plug-in hybrid. This'll give you an extra

100 kilometres of EV distance, and also the ability to cross back to normal hybrid and

normal fuel systems.

(0:30 - 0:43)

So how's that an advantage? Really easy. If we do a lot of short hop stuff, take the kids to

school, duck down the shops, short burst to work from home, you can run the car purely on

EV. You'll get 100K range.

(0:43 - 0:55)

There'll be three different ways you will be able to charge that car, and I'll explain those as

we go. But for now, welcome to the new RAV4 GR plug-in hybrid. So the GR, now it is our

new sport model edition.

(0:56 - 1:15)

So it's something that Toyota have created in line with our GR philosophy of gazoo racing

and our profile for sporty models, racing models, and that new heritage line that we're

bringing. We've done that with the RAV4, and how is that different? There's a few things

that are worthwhile looking at. For starters, when we look around the front, the GR has its

own unique grille.

(1:16 - 1:36)

You also get your GR badging, of course, and a smaller black indicated badge, just to show

you that this is something a little bit different. So we get to the profile here, we have 20-inch

wheels, and of course, they're a nice black and silver finish. And you'll see in here, we have

the red GR brake caliber, something unique to the GR line, to show everyone that you have

decided that this is the different car that you need.

(1:36 - 1:47)

When we come around, we have black mirrors, we have our black flashings across the

bottom here, which is a painted, it's not a plastic, it's a nice painted black. Everything else is

body colored, of course. Our roof rails are black.

(1:47 - 2:08)

Now, something very unique to the GR, when you come around the back, we have this nice

new rear wing, which is purely for the GR. Not designed for any of the other RAVs, just

unique to this model. Again, we have GR badging at the back, and the new PHEV badge,

which shows that this is actually a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which is pretty cool, I

reckon.

(2:08 - 2:34)

Black bars at the back, parking sensors front and rear, as per normal RAV line, all our safety

features are there, but there's gonna be a few little extra bits and pieces. So some of them

are, we have a retuned suspension, retuned coils to make this more of a handling RAV than

your normal, traditional, comfortable RAV. More sporty design, it's a little bit more firmer in

its approach, without being ridiculously so.

(2:35 - 2:50)

So one thing you'll notice different, obviously because we have the plug-in version here, as

you can see, we have access to the port charge to do your electric charging. You also have

your normal fuel cap back here as well, because you are gonna need both. Why are we

gonna need both? That's the purpose of plug-in hybrid.

(2:51 - 3:00)

We can run fuel, we can run electric. Now, as I said before, there'll be three ways to charge.

You can trickle charge at home, because we provide you with, and I'll show you that in a

moment.

(3:01 - 3:14)

We provide you with a cord that'll plug into here, and then into your normal wall socket at

home. For example, if you had a power unit outside. Doing that overnight, you're probably

looking that kind of timeline to charge it from if you were down to zero.

(3:15 - 3:38)

If you get a built-in wall charger at home, that should take around about two and a half

hours. Now, the third alternative, you're out and about, you wanna top the charge up, you

can do it at a shopping center charging station, or out and about service station charging

stations. And that'll take you around about, let's say between a one or 2% charge up to 100,

you're probably an hour or so.

(3:39 - 4:05)

I, myself on the weekend, wanted to trial this, and I've discovered it was incredibly easy to

do a charging at a charging station. It took me 40 minutes, and here's the good bit, it's about

$9 to charge to an 80% charge, which was really easy to maintain. With our Toyota Connect

app, which of course will help you load up on your phone, you have access to all the normal

Toyota Connection functions, starting the car from the phone, locking it, unlocking it, finding

it on a map as to where it is.

(4:05 - 4:20)

One of the new things you'll be able to see is how the charge is going when you're sitting

there charging the car. It'll tell you how much longer it's got to go, what stage it's up to, 50,

60% and so on. It's gonna be a lot of great ways that you can use all of these systems and

save yourself a bucket of money in fuel.

(4:20 - 4:29)

So here we are inside of the GR, and this is a great little place to be. Few things different.

One of the things that they have done with this car is they've improved the steering.

(4:29 - 4:49)

So how have they done that? We've done a revised steering rack, still electric power

steering, but it's designed a little bit more for that sportier feel. So you've got a more direct

turn into a corner, better road holding based on the fact that it is gonna be a more sporty

unit. Paddle shifts on the back of the steering wheel for when you're using it, shall we say a

little bit more spiritedly.

(4:50 - 5:02)

So you've got that availability. Heads up display on the windscreen, very much like our RAV4

Cruiser. We also have our digital camera, so normal revision mirror and also a digital camera

which projects behind the car.

(5:02 - 5:24)

So if you've got three people in the back and you can't quite see past them, the instant flip

of this will allow you to have a video camera behind you, which is another good thing. Inside

here, of course, our normal RAV4 functions and dash line. We have our wireless charges,

two of them, same as the RAV4 Cruiser, which is something that I think makes life a little

easier if you've got more than one phone to charge when you're both in the car.

(5:24 - 5:47)

You don't have to fuss around for cables and things, but still doing that, you have two 45

watt charging USC ports here and more on the back of here as well. So as we've seen before

in the RAV4 with the Cruiser, we have our twin sided center console so you can access from

driver or passenger. And I've said it before, I showed the last in the last video and I still think

it's pretty cool.

(5:48 - 6:02)

Press both buttons, flip it over, you now have the ability to have a tray. So if you're sitting,

kids are at sport, you're in the car having a coffee or whatever you're seeing there, you

wanna make it rather than use the cup holders, if you've got a little bit of food or

something, that's what you can use it for. It becomes a small tray.

(6:02 - 6:12)

When you're done, flip it back over as easy as that. And there it is locked back in. With the

GR, we're gonna have heated seats for the front and in addition, heated steering wheel.

(6:12 - 6:23)

Gonna be good on those really cold winter mornings if you just need to warm up the hands

just a little bit. Wonderful winter time in Queensland where we can get a couple of seven

and eight degree mornings. Nice way to warm the hands up to give yourself that nice

control of the car again.

(6:24 - 6:36)

So how does the EV mode work? Really easy to run your car. When you first start it, the GR

plug-in hybrid and our XSE plug-in hybrid, which I'll show you later, they both will start in

their EV mode. So you'll be straight up to electric.

(6:37 - 6:45)

Now, if you've got a full charge, that's great. Jump in, turn the car on, into drive, away you

go. You've then got that 100K EV range.

(6:46 - 7:07)

Should you need to change, you have the other option of going from the EV to our auto EV

mode, which combines both the hybrid engine and the electric engine to give you all of the

car's power when you need it. That's gonna be really good because by the way, combining

all of these, we now have a RAV4 with 227 kilowatts. Not a slouch, very adept, very agile.

(7:07 - 7:23)

You can then also press the button again and go to pure HV mode. So how does this work

for you? If you're driving and you deplete your electric charge, the car will automatically

switch over to its hybrid mode. So you don't have to worry about stopping, slowing down,

worrying about, oh, I've gotta go charge it right now.

(7:23 - 7:34)

You don't. The HV mode will take over, off you go. We estimate as per normal RAV, you're

still gonna get around that 1000Ks out of a fuel tank, plus with that extra 100K range.

(7:34 - 7:44)

So we could be talking around 1100Ks out of a combined cycle of fuel and electric. You will

need to plug it in. The EV system doesn't regenerate itself when on hybrid mode.

(7:44 - 7:56)

You will need to still plug her in. But as I've explained before, that's not gonna take a lot of

time depending on which system you use to recharge that EV component. So, comfort

creatures inside.

(7:56 - 8:06)

Dual zone air conditioning, heated front seats. We also have our JBL sound system. So

there's that nice music line that the RAV4 Cruiser gets and also this model gets as well.

(8:07 - 8:12)

You'll have, as I mentioned, your twin chargers. We've got our paddle shifts. We've got auto

headlights, auto wipers.

(8:13 - 8:23)

New functions on the dash and you can see the size of this screen over here. The multi-

information display forward of your steering wheel gives you some really good information.

You've got tyre pressure.

(8:23 - 8:31)

You've got EV charging lines. You've got your total average of fuel, all your safety features

that you can get into. And there's another thing.

(8:31 - 8:49)

Back to normal RAV, through our normal system, we can go in and we can pick all the things

here that we need to think about and make sure are turned on or off depending on if you

wanna make adjustments to yourself. So parking assist, parking support brake, our rear

cross-traffic alert. We have all of those in there.

(8:49 - 8:56)

That's all good. That's all your safety features and you want them. And we've got a sunroof

again, which is great.

(8:56 - 9:08)

RAV4 Cruiser, the XSE model and this, the GR Sport all have a sunroof, which is really good.

Remember in our Cruiser, it's the full panoramic. In this, it's a normal size moonroof that

just opens up, tilts, slides back.

(9:08 - 9:16)

So that's good. You've got that little bit to get that open air feel, let some light in, let some

ventilation in, all there. And the easiest of operations.

(9:17 - 9:27)

Look at that. One button, it's already opening. And when you close it, I don't think it gets

any easier than that.

(9:27 - 9:37)

When you wanna just tilt it up, you've got the ability to have it just vented. So you've got

some little air pockets there just to allow a little bit of ventilation. And sorry, from the

outside, it does look pretty cool when it's vented up like that.

(9:37 - 9:49)

Now, one thing to note with the GR, this model is an all-wheel drive only. And that's been

done purely because of the performance line of this car. As I said before, it is 20 mil wider in

its front track and it has different suspension components.

(9:49 - 10:07)

So adding the all-wheel drive system as a standard fit for the GR Sport plug-in RAV is a really

good thing because it will give you that exceptionally good handling that we're used to from

most of our all-wheel drive models. So something else to consider when you're looking at

this particular version of the RAV4 lineup. So now here, the GR seat.

(10:07 - 10:16)

One thing I didn't get to tell you, the good combination, this being a sport seat, is we

wanted to make it look so. So you've got leather on the outer bolsters. We've got our GR

stitching, but look at this.

(10:17 - 10:21)

All nice velour. I wanna say suede velour. It's more suedey Alcantara look.

(10:22 - 10:31)

Like that's really good and very durable and it's gonna keep its look for a long, long time. So I

think we've done really well here. So we talked about charging before.

(10:31 - 10:54)

Have a look at how easy this is. When you get your plug-in RAV, you're gonna get two cases

in the boot of your car. The first one, which is this one here, is gonna be the one that we use

for having either your own port charger at home or if you get to a particular charging station

that doesn't have the right connector or doesn't have a connector sometimes, you've got

one that'll fit your car and also the charging point wherever you happen to be.

(10:54 - 11:09)

Be that a wall charger at home, as I mentioned, or an outside charging station. So your

second one is this little fellow here. And this one is the one that you'll be able to use for at

home because it's got a normal power connector point at this end to go into your normal

wall.

(11:10 - 11:22)

And then at the other side is the charging unit to go into that left-hand socket. And that's

gonna make life a lot easier for you in case you just wanna charge it. And we do, like our

electric BZ4X, we always wanna say ABC, always be charging.

(11:22 - 11:30)

You wanna keep a good charge point, trickle it overnight. You don't have to fast charge it all

the time. In fact, we don't recommend that you fast charge it all the time.

(11:30 - 11:43)

The trickle charge is a better way because it's gentler on the systems of the car long-term.

Something to think about. And also for extra sporty handling, structural rigidity, we've

added a rear brace.

(11:43 - 11:58)

So this is something that's new to this model and only for this model. The rest of the RAV4

range doesn't have that. And while they share the same look, the same sizes, this, as I

mentioned, slightly wider track, more involved suspension, better coils, purely set up for

handling.

(11:58 - 12:10)

You're really gonna enjoy this. And as always, we have one here as a demonstrator, and I

Toyota, and let us show you why one of these should find its way into your garage.

think it's worth your time to come down to 753 Wynnum Road, Morningside, downtown