2021 Tesla Model Y vs Toyota RAV4 Prime

hey everybody it's charlie from daily motor this week we've been fortunate enough to be spending time with these two players in the electric vehicle sphere the tesla model y and the toyota rav4 prime this is our personal model y had it for almost a month now ownership has been great and this is a loner rav4 prime which we've had in the past but have now gotten to spend more time with and really get to feel out the pros and cons so we're going to go for a quick test drive in both we're going to come back and look at the merits of both of them and talk about which one you should buy depending on your use case let's start by having electric vehicles make a case for themselves with the tesla model y [Music] one of the things right off the bat that needs to be said about the model y is this is a pretty slim excuse for a crossover it does have the interior proportions cargo abilities and seating arrangement of a crossover you kind of sit up high people like that there's a ton of cargo space tesla says 68 cubic feet with all the seats folded and they don't even publish the cargo capacity with the seats up which i think is pretty ridiculous but when it comes to ground clearance this has nothing on the rav4 you're not going to be off-roading i've even had trouble getting through large amounts of snow with the ground clearance on our y there's a rav4 you get in and you feel like you can clomp over just about anything that might be in a standard road let's take a quick minute to talk about full ev lifestyle this is the most limited tesla that they make 244 miles of epa estimated combined range realistically at higher speeds and in the cold you're going to be getting maybe 70 of that depending on how you drive so yes your road tripping abilities are limited but you should think of ev ownership being less inhibited by the range of your vehicle and more inhibited by the habits of the owner think of it this way if you're someone who's very intentional and responsible and you charge your electric vehicle on a 240 charger at home every night you're always going to come out to over 200 miles of range and if you're willing to plan your road trips around your vehicle's abilities and chargers you can go just about anywhere you want however if you're the type of person who might be forgetful not be used to plugging your car in every night or if you're the type of person to maybe go out and about go to work [Music] do errands or whatever and then want to take impromptu trips out to the countryside where there are no chargers and your car is only at 40 you're going to be a lot more limited on what you can do now in a gas car no big deal if you wake up in the morning you got to go to work and your tank's on empty well you might need to spend an extra five minutes to hit a gas station on your way in in this day and age chargers are becoming much much more available whether they're tesla superchargers or chad mo chargers which teslas can have adapters to or just level two chargers around places you might be going electric vehicles even those with more limited range like this one can be used by most people the other caveat is if you don't live somewhere where you can charge regularly if you're in an apartment with no access to level two charging then sticking with a gasoline-assisted vehicle is probably your smartest move again back to the cars this model y is right on the bottom end price-wise of the toyota rav4 prime and it's also only rear-wheel drive so we also need to consider the all-wheel drive long range model y sporting over 300 miles of combined range but also costing right at the top end of the rav4 prime just about fifty thousand dollars now that rav4 prime that we have also costs fifty thousand dollars so that is a much more accurate comparison however we don't have a long range model y sitting in the garage if any of you feel like being real generous and tossing us 50 g's then we'll go out and buy one now because the model y cheats a bit in terms of being a compact crossover it has a lower ground clearance and a pretty firm ride that does make it handle better than just about anything in its class short of a macan gts steering is responsive center of gravity is so low turns a race car sharp and it's quick too even in chill mode right now which is the easier acceleration mode i get on it and it pulls you right away a month into ownership i haven't had any complaints with this center infotainment screen even things that some people like to complain about like the windshield wipers you'd be surprised how often you find yourself in a standard car adjusting your windshield wiper speed do that in the model y you just press the button when you need a windshield wiper or leave it on auto it's fairly straightforward the model y with its minimalist interior and its sleek looks both inside and out feels like a luxury item and feels very far removed from the rav4's rugged can-do sort of mentality that lends itself a little bit more to being a daily driver this really feels more like it'd be at home on the streets of orange county whereas the rav4 that we're going to get into here in just a moment feels more like a car that can take on the day-to-day trials of michigan ownership even in rear wheel drive form the model y is quite competent in the snow you want to see more on that check the links in our description for our model y playlist a few videos in there talking about its snow abilities taking a quick chance to look at their proportions being right next to each other model-wise wheelbase is definitely longer it sits lower looks are subjective but they're both attractive in their own ways and both a little weird looking in their own ways yeah the model y looks like a car compared to this thing all right into the toyota [Music] very familiar seating position in here the rav is a comfortable car we're all charged up right now 31 miles estimated to empty we got our climate control on and did have to drive around a few miles earlier situating the cars yeah this thing is comfortable if i had to explain it quickly to somebody on the street the rav4 prime is for someone who doesn't want to stray too far from the conventional vehicle but still want some of the benefits of electric vehicle ownership and i'm not even talking just with the powertrain aspect the whole driving experience driving a tesla whether it's model 3 model y model s model x they all feel like an entirely foreign experience not so with the rav4 the rav4 is just the rav4 is about as traditional as you can get things are chunky rugged placement of everything makes sense i do think toyota's been going a bit overboard in the last few years with their stage clusters the center information screen is busy doesn't exactly make sense and where everything's laid out you get kind of confused with which buttons to use back and forth and something to do with the contrasts of everything i'm sure as an owner you get more familiar with where everything is and you kind of just go back and forth between the few screens that you need but there is something to be said for the simplicity of the tesla's layout as much as these two vehicles can be cross shaft in terms of what they provide to an owner at the end of the day i think their actual buyers will be quite different people you have to want and be excited about a new ownership experience with the tesla you're getting over-the-air updates that add new features you're getting an entirely different driving experience and as i was mentioning earlier it's a different ownership experience you need to be intentional with your trip planning with your charging with your day-to-day routines the rav4 just get in it and go if you're going out for a weekend trip you're not gonna have anywhere to plug in no big deal run on gas that all sounds fine and dandy but then you get into the elephant in the room of cost if you can even get your hands on an se model rav4 prime you're okay with more basic interior appointments maybe not navigation or the jbl sound system you're still looking at the high 30 000 range to take one of these things home so at that point you have to at least consider the possibility of getting a basic gasoline gasoline-only rav4 one of the more basic model rav4s whether it's front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive still going to get you pretty good fuel economy especially on the highway for the type of vehicle you're getting 30 miles per gallon it's definitely doable around 70 miles per hour this thing only gets about 33 34 miles per gallon on the highway it got 34 in our testing i got my foot to the floor right now we're just barely getting up to 70. there we go so that gets into the question do you do a lot of city driving and in that case what an electric vehicle will fit your lifestyle if you don't do a lot of city driving you do a lot of road trips and long-range highway driving then what benefit are you really going to see from the 35-40 or so mile electric vehicle capacity of the rav4 prime anyway up here at highway speeds you notice more wind noise and tire noise from the rav4 but a lot less of that impact noise that you get in the model y you also get a lot less of that impact harshness through the tires in the rav4 and you don't get as much of that echo factor as you do with that big panoramic roof in the model y another element of driving that is quite different between these two vehicles is one pedal driving with the model y i can take my foot off the gas and i can completely come to a stop and make this corner without ever even breathing on the brake pedal this car it's just like driving a standard car i gotta get on the brakes not really a fault but once you do get used to one pedal driving with a full ev it's pretty nice to have the build quality of the rav4 really cannot be ignored everything feels solid well put together well laid out the prime exudes a confidence that i just don't get in the model y the rav feels like a car i could buy and own for a decade and it would still work just the way i bought it on day one and that's how a ton of rav4 owners are they buy these cars and they hold on to them for an incredibly long time because there's just no point in getting anything else but that's what raises the interesting point about the prime four years ago if you asked me whether i would pick a chevy bolt or a chevy volt i would have absolutely told you chevy volt there just weren't enough fast charging stations the range was too limited on the bolt it required too many compromises and the chevy volt perfectly bridged the gap between those i think the case for plug-in hybrid was very strong then now here in 2021 we're on the tail end of plug-in hybrids having any sort of relevancy don't get me wrong there are people out there who a plug-in hybrid is the right vehicle for whether it's your day-to-day use case or it's your geographic situation that makes it so any sort of road tripping would be very very difficult if not possible with a full electric vehicle okay fine fair but fast forward a few years and i expect that situation to be radically different both tesla and other companies are rapidly increasing the supply of level three chargers and not only that electric vehicle manufacturers are putting out vehicles that can travel farther and farther every year so this rav4 prime might fill that sweet spot and bridge that gap for you today in 2021 in terms of range and usability but is that going to be the case in 2023 after you're only halfway through your five-year loan on one of these cars any electric vehicles only going to increase in usability as more chargers get installed around the world the argument for this raft prime is only going to get weaker as the argument for electric vehicles gets stronger that being said if they could just layer the floor of a rav4 with batteries oh my gosh that would be a great car chris up with the topher put it really well that it would be cool if the rav4 prime were more fully committed to an aggressive kind of off-roady sort of lifestyle maybe raise it up an extra inch give it even a little bit softer suspension and make it so you can take this thing off-roading in silence that would be pretty sweet all right parked next to each other again let's take a little look around the two cars more limited interior storage in the rav4 you've got wireless device charger there and fairly small center console two usb a ports high amp some little storage compartments kind of built into the dash and then a glove box and some small door compartments i do have a sunglasses holder though which is nice really premium seats feel good look good and are incredibly comfortable i didn't even question seat comfort after doing our 100 mile highway fuel economy test this jbl audio system is surprisingly good as well 11 speakers in a big old subwoofer i would venture to say it's better than the model y sound system a lot of people rave about tesla sound systems i haven't made up my mind fully even after a month in that car things don't sound particularly great certain songs are really sharp but other songs don't sound well balanced i've been really impressed with the jbl system in this check the link in the description if you want to see our dedicated review cooled seats another big plus to the rav4 prime surprising that tesla doesn't offer that yet infotainment no argument tesla blows toyota away yes you have android auto and apple carplay in this but i really couldn't care less navigation seems dated on this everything's slow to react screen contrasts are not very good at least you have some physical buttons but toyota's infotainment definitely not my preference tesla blows it away you can't open the sunroof which is nice let's go get in the tesla as i've been saying throughout this video just an entirely different interior situation here minimalist appearance but quite functional as well you have your dual wireless device chargers there big deep storage well in here about the same size in here as the rav4 center console but then here you've also got this tray and a center console area on top of that some door pockets that go back more than the rav4 and feel more premium however the materials themselves feel nice and look good but don't inspire the feeling of ruggedness as the rav4 again no competition to the model y blowing the rav4 away in infotainment everything's super easy to use so responsive look at the pinch to zoom on this map even the refresh rate is good bit of a learning curve just to know where to find things but once you do everything is no more than two taps away they do a really good job with that and there are a lot of novelty features in the model y that really increase ownership satisfaction for example you just get in put your foot on the brake and drive away there's no button to press to start it up or anything both cars are controllable with mobile apps but everything happens faster with the model y and being able to use your phone as a key that always works very quickly unlocks the car as soon as you open the door that part works really well and things like sentry mode so if somebody comes up to your car while it's parked it videotapes it things like dash cam on horn so when you honk the horn it can save your dash cam footage all around the car a lot of technical aspects to the model y which make it a more interesting and different and pleasant ownership experience no sunglasses holder though getting in the back absolutely remarkable amount of room in the model y you can recline the seats you can flip down this center armrest i've had six foot three individuals in the back here and they fit with no problem i've got a significant amount of headroom as a 5 foot 10 person good amount of knee room and this is kind of overlooked sometimes but foot room look at how much room my feet have underneath there you've got big door pockets two usb c ports and no center hump so even the center passenger has plenty of room for their feet or if you just need to shove a bag in there or something pretty good space to be back here getting into the rev also a good amount of space as a 5 foot 10 adult headroom's a bit smaller but still plenty fine for me the seats also recline got much smaller just pretty much water bottle holder and the doors but another good center armrest two usb a ports and center vents as well very comparable place to be foot room's a little more limited and overall room is less but it doesn't feel like you're giving up anything usable and both of them have heated seats in the rear so that's good okay trunk space let's compare the speed of opening three two one go well to be fair i had to tap that and hold this so that took a little bit longer but you see how much slower that opens up taking a look inside pretty load floors about just past my kneecap plenty of good space you see that subwoofer you have a 1500 watt wall style plug in the rav4 prime xse big old spare tire that's important to a lot of people but not really any room under there in the y looks deeper if a bit narrower we have these big storage wells on the side which are really nice and then flop this up in this huge underfloor compartment and then this little more limited underfloor compartment there both of these are extremely convenient you see i got my charger bag and a scraper right there whereas in the rav they're kind of just floating around you might be able to finagle them in by the spare tire but then you risk them rattling you'd be surprised how convenient it is to be able to put something in there like maybe camping equipment or grocery bags and then put this back flat and put more stuff on top no privacy screen on the model y something you do get in the rav4 [Music] pull that i've never used these but some people appreciate them especially living in bigger cities folding the seats the rav you gotta reach up kind of push them down pop this out kind of a pain there we are plenty of room load flat surface model y pull these buttons those fold down not quite as flat of a surface but looks like just about the same amount of space yeah both fairly comparable in terms of day-to-day usage typically i'd climb in and test them out for laying down but my shoes are filthy i really don't feel like doing that to either these cars all right we've seen a bunch on the rav4 and the model y now but let's talk individual categories trying something new at daily motor here we're going to take a look at car and driver's vehicle comparison checklist if you've never seen this before for every comparison they've got a list of criteria that they rate the cars on in order to come up with a little bit clearer measurement system for how they come to their conclusions so we're going to base ours off that as well but we're just going to pick a winner in each category starting at the top driver comfort i think the rav4 is a little bit more comfortable the model y seats are incredibly comfortable as well both of them have 4-way lumbar adjustment very adjustable there's something about the way you sit in the rav4 and these seats i think it gets just a slight edge ergonomics i'm giving that to the tesla maybe the tesla's cheating a little bit because it's got a lot less going on but everything is so easy to use and within reach you've just got two simple controls on the steering wheel the rev you got to be reaching all over the place to do stuff and there's less in terms of cargo space slight nod to the tesla second row comfort that's going to the model y second row space going to the model y third row doesn't apply cargo space i'm going to say a tie but let's look at actual numbers rav4 prime objectively has 63 cubic feet of cargo area with the seats folded the model y has 68 so objectively speaking the model y is slightly bigger but i totally didn't even mention the frunk in the model y which adds even more space and those underfloor compartments so nods go into the model y for cargo space towing capacity the model y has an optional hitch that's rated up to 3 500 pounds the rav4 prime with its hitch is at 2500 pounds so technically towing capacity is higher in the model y but you're gonna be able to go so much further towing anything with the rav4 that it's a little bit of a toss-up but strictly speaking the model y wins in capacity features and amenities that one's really tough to say the rav4 has cooled seats but everything else is done better and more available in the model y more device charging usb c ports you still have your heated seats heated steering wheel but with the model y you're getting things like a power adjustable steering wheel a much better infotainment system more usability from the phone app i'm giving features and amenities to the model y fit and finish some of you aren't going to like this but i'm giving it to the toyota head mounted gopro died so we're switching cameras the model y feels and looks very premium however the materials and the way everything fits together and is built doesn't inspire the confidence that the rav4 does these materials still feel nice and they look good enough they look expensive enough but the feel of everything is so solid nothing was overlooked while it might not be luxury inspiring like the model y you've got to admit they did a really good job with the rav4 interior styling that's so subjective they're both really good looking but i'm giving it to the model y i love the minimalist appearance i think everything looks really sleek and impressive in there exterior styling [Music] we'll give it to the rav4 it looks good in this red and black mix i think it's a little more universal the model y is a tad strange looking up front you gotta admit price that's really tough to say the rav4 prime starts at 38.1 really the rev4 prime starts at 38 100 before destination that's going to tack on about a thousand but the model y starts at 42 000 before destination bumping that up an extra thousand or so and that gets you the shorter range and no all-wheel drive and you do still have to consider the tax rebate that you can get with the rav4 prime although everything's up in the air of what that's gonna look like three months from now for the model y and if toyota ends up running out on there so i don't know i don't like to consider the tax rebate in price but yeah i think you could give a slight edge to pricing for the rav4 powertrain acceleration model y's got to beat flexibility rav4 fuel economy model y engine nvh model y transmission model y model y blows the rav4 way in powertrain other than the usability aspect of being able to use this with gas and electricity like i said for certain people that's huge and it would make it so the rav4 is the only consideration but if you're willing to consider both powertrain options having full electric is superior from a driving and enjoyment satisfaction standpoint chassis performance model y steering feel model y brake feel model y but the brake feels pretty good in this handling model y ride rav4 fun to drive factor model y if you do a good amount of off-roading or rugged sort of driving you're going to prefer the rav4 but from an on-road standpoint the model y feels better to drive that's 16 categories for the model y and six categories for the rav4 so pretty straightforward the model y is a more compelling car all things considered there are going to be people where the rav4 is just so much more usable for their lifestyle they couldn't even consider an ev that's fine that's fair this is still an excellent vehicle but dollar for dollar all things considered the model y is a more unique and exciting ownership experience and a more unique and exciting driving experience and as long as you're okay with switching your lifestyle to adapt to electric vehicle ownership that's the car you should go with so this has been fun and informative for me as well because i didn't exactly know what i was gonna pick going into this i'd kind of been debating it back and forth for myself throughout the week and getting to spend time really thinking talking and driving both of them i'm pretty confident in my decision thank you all so much for watching if you want to see more on both vehicles check the links in the description and we'll see on the next one i'm charlie from daily motor and as always drive on [Music]

Channel: Daily Motor

Views: 39,046

Keywords: new car, new car review, car review, POV, binaural, cool cars, audio system, radio, stereo, real-world fuel economy, mpg, highway fuel economy

Id: exDjZMhyaq0

Length: 28min 48sec (1728 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 26 2021