2026 Toyota RAV4 Woodland Plug-in Hybrid – POV Driving Impressions
Today we’re driving the 2026 Toyota RAV 4 Woodland. This is the plug-in hybrid Woodland though, so it makes 324 horsepower. You get 49 miles of EV driving range combined. Maybe about 500 550 mi of range between gasoline and electric. So amazing range, pretty good off-road capability. We have a set of slightly larger all-terrain tires on here, about an inch larger in diameter than the standard RAV 4. So that adds about half an inch of lift, giving this 8.6 inches of ground clearance. They look great. These are Dunlop Grand Track AT 30OT tires. They almost look like the Falcon Wild Peaks, but they’re not. This is painted in Everest. We have a roof rack, some skid plating underneath, rigid lights up front. Overall, pretty good looking RAV 4. We’ve spent some time in the GR Sport, the Limited, the regular hybrid Woodland, and I’m curious to see how this drives today. We also get a 3500lb towing capacity here. Look at that. Very good. Lots of standard floor mats. A bit different of an interior with this Woodland package. We do get a compact space saver spare on the back. Slightly higher load floor with this plug-in hybrid variant, but not too much of an encroachment upon cargo capacity, which is good. Back seats are spacious. I like the kind of orange bronze seat piping here. This woodland treatment looks quite good. Roof rails are rated to I don’t think they could really support a rooftop tent. It’s like 170 some pounds, but you could throw a mountain bike up there and maybe uh you know, some cargo storage or something like that. Here’s where you plug in. I like the design language of this Woodland, too. The front end looks a little bit more aggressive, a little more 4Runner like. Of course, this new RAV 4 has been redesigned completely inside and out. We’ve got a new infotainment Big chunky shifter down here. Lots of great storage solutions inside this RAV 4 Woodland trim. This is a pre-production vehicle, so you just need to know that not everything here is 100%. Feels pretty tightly bolted together. That was my biggest complaint with the previous generation RAV 4 is that it just didn’t feel very solid. It felt like it could have used a bit more refinement in terms of NVH and material quality. We see a lot of those improvements here with this new generation of RAV 4. I like the materials on the dashboard. The plastics are all matte and nothing too gloss black. We’ve got lots of physical controls for our drive modes, our all-wheel drive settings. You’ve got hill descent control, traction control, camera view buttons here. You can scroll around your RAV 4, see forward facing and rear cameras. There’s even a wider view for off-roading, which is neat. Look at that. We get these constant climate control icons down below. Heated and heated seats and heated steering wheel down there. Nice climate menu for this plug-in hybrid. There is a charge screen, too, where you can schedule charge times, set charge limits. You’ve got this quick access menu up here where you can control your screen brightness. Few other quick access things. There’s an onboard dash camera here that uses all the vehicle’s camera systems. You can go in record things um and basically have a dash camera that is only built into the vehicle. No cloud-based stuff like that. You just have a SD card somewhere in here that you can just put in your computer and use the footage. Very useful, very neat. Infotainment screen is really quick to respond. The bass sound system is decent, though. The JBL is really where it’s at with this new RAV 4. We’ve got wireless CarPlay. Again, just finally a very modern feeling RAV 4 that looks good, drives well. Let’s go see what this plug-in hybrid is like on the road with 324 horsepower. I just got out of the GR Sport, which feels like a complete different vehicle altogether. The suspension tuning on that is amazing. I don’t believe there are any major suspension differences between this Woodland and the regular RAV 4s. It’s just a bigger meteor all-terrain tire and it rides really well. We had the standard hybrid off-road earlier today and suspension damping rebound control was excellent for a vehicle in this class. I would say class leading. doesn’t quite have the ground clearance of the Subaru Forester or Subaru Outback Wilderness, but it’s not far off from even like the Land Cruiser. Eight and a half inches of ground clearance here will get you pretty far. And with the fuel economy that this thing gets high 30s, it’s about double what you’d get in a 4Runner or a Land Cruiser, which is pretty amazing. Add in the plug-in hybrid factor and you’ve got a really efficient package here. Our battery is depleted today, unfortunately. So, there’s no way to show you guys what electric driving only mode will be like until we get one of these back home for a loan and get a chance to charge it up. Toyota did get rid of the charge mode with these PHEVs. So, it was a system feature that wasn’t really used very much by customers. It was pretty inefficient uh use of power and they decided to fix it. So, we can’t really charge up the battery while we’re driving today. I have really nice visibility in this new 2026 RAV 4. Let’s see what power’s like. That’s impressive. That’s really impressive. new steering wheel buttons, new cruise control switch gear, all the driving assistance tech today and all of the RAV 4s that I’ve driven among pretty much the whole lineup, all the tech has worked great. Little more tire and road noise here in this woodland with the bigger allins, but still honestly depending on your pavement surface, this is pretty good NVH. It’s much better than the previous generation RAV 4. And these Alterrains actually aren’t that loud. There’s a bit more wind noise from the roof rails. I think that’s pretty much about it. That’s the biggest difference that I’m noticing. All right, let’s see how this handles. Little bit of sidewall squish and squirm from these Alterrains, but honestly, the Rad 4 handles great in standard form. It’s a much more athletic crossover than what we had previously, which was kind of a wallow EMS. This is uh really well buttoned down onroad and off-road. I’m pretty impressed with what it can do, too. Let’s see what drive mode we’re in. We’re in normal mode. We’ll just leave it there. Let’s do a quick 0 to 60 here. Just rolling into it. Really strong acceleration off the line. It’s pretty incredible what allterrain tire technology has done in the last decade or so. Granted, these are more highway terrain tires for softroading instead of hardcore off-roading, but they’ve got a little bit more thickness and tread to get you through deeper mud or rocks. A little bit extra puncture resistance as well. All good things for your crossover that you want to take to the campsite or off a off the beaten path out into a trail. I love that there’s just massive amounts of sidewall on these bigger tires. And it’s the tire that adds the ground clearance, not the suspension. I think ultimately if you wanted to do some serious off-roading with this, it’s probably got the electronics. It’s got the all-wheel drive system tuning to get you through some pretty hairy scenarios. The biggest limiting factor is just going to be ground clearance. And you might just be able to go to the aftermarket for that and still have a pretty nice riding and handling RAV 4. But as it sits, you could do quite a bit with 8 and 12 inches of ground clearance. Remember, that’s about what the Land Cruiser has. Though the Land Cruiser does have better approach and departure angles than this, but still there’s a lot to work with here. On-road driving dynamics here are quite good. I’m actually really surprised at how well this handles and drives. It’s comfortable. It’s soft. Toyota has done a really nice job refining this chassis to just feel like a a nice modern slightly more luxurious RAV 4. This is just a better vehicle to spend time in. Now, there are fewer shakes and rattles in all the vehicles that we’ve driven this week, and there’s a really nice level of differentiation between the different trims. This woodland is just cool and rugged and a little bit different from the Limited or the XSSE or the XLE. And the GR Sport almost feels like an entirely different vehicle altogether, just because it’s so dynamic and and engaging and exciting, and it’s kind of fast, honestly, around a corner. It’s got really high levels of mechanical grip, but you kind of get some of that same excitement factor from this plug-in hybrid just because of the speed. That initial acceleration you get out of this powertrain is very, very impressive. All right, we’re pulling up here to this ranch and we’re going to do a quick off-road route. Yeah. So, trail mode will relax our traction control just a little bit. You won’t have any lights or warning messages up on the dash, but you can feel it going over some looser terrain. There’s some uh kind of loose sand, wash out, coarser sand, gravel up here. I’ll show you guys what that’s like. The first thing we have here is an articulation situation. I’m mostly just surprised at how flat this goes through this type of a situation being a unibody crossover. So, usually there isn’t a lot of articulation built into the suspension with these vehicles. We’ve got our driver rear wheel lifting right now. And very little drama here from the traction control system getting through this. None of that clicking, none of that annoying tendency that you would hear normally from a traction control system. Toyota’s done a really nice job quieting down and smoothing out their traction systems in their new vehicles. Not just the new uh 4Runners and TRD Pros and stuff like that. This RAV 4 sees a little bit of that, too. Honestly, what I’m most surprised about with this new Woodland is just the ride quality. It’s really smooth. We’ve got some rougher road up ahead a little bit, but it just kind of bulldozes over everything. Maybe it’s the extra sidewall from these Alterrains, but the damping, even at full compression and rebound, seems to do a pretty good job controlling body motions. It’s comfortable. It’s pretty quiet. There isn’t a ton of NVH over these rougher roads, even with a bit of washboarding underneath us. It’s surprisingly good considering there isn’t really a different state of suspension tune with this Woodland trim. It just works. Good grip from these all trains, too. We’ve got some features like downhill assist control, stuff like that. Honestly, for the the descent up here, it’s a little bit too fast for my comfort zone. I don’t know if there’s a way to adjust the speed of it. So, I was just I was just left with braking. But, it’s nice to have features like that at your disposal if you want them. And they’re just a quick press away. The ergonomics in this cabin are great. There everything is pretty much right within a hand’s reach. All the important stuff is right where you need it. And if you want to go deeper in the menus, you can, but you don’t really need to on a regular basis. So, I was expecting a little bit different ride quality from this plug-in hybrid just with the extra weight, but I think Toyota’s done a nice job here. I don’t know the numbers on weight difference with this new generation, but I believe the last generation RAV 4 Prime was about 3 or 400 lb heavier than the standard hybrid. And I would assume that’s kind of the same case here. Phoenix just had a ton of rain the last few days. So, this is probably the first day where we’ve got a dry off-road course, right? Yeah. Yeah, indeed. Yeah, it’s just super well controlled over this terrain. So, we’ll show you guys what trail mode does here. It just kind of loosens up the traction a little bit. Lets you get some slip into the system. There’s a lot more power here with this plug-in hybrid than we had with the standard hybrid all-wheel drive. But I think the big takeaway is Toyota’s really done a nice job leveling up with their sus suspension tuning here with the new Rav 4 and in this Woodland, the off-road performance is exceptional. We’ve driven a few other crossovers in this class and I don’t think they really hold a candle to this in terms of ride quality over rough terrain. Of course, the Subaru Wilderness cars have more ground clearance, maybe a little bit more capability. Camera systems are nice to have, too. You’ve got a few different views. You can see see this kind of an under hood view and then a forward facing view. Might stick with that. You can see where our tires are too with steering angle and everything. Also see grade. Take this line up to the left a little bit. But pretty good visibility out of the front. And then if you can’t see something, you can always rely on the cameras. There’s a bit of distortion, but once you kind of acclimate to where everything is, you can figure it out. No bumps or scrapes. And then at about uh 7 to 10 miles an hour, that camera system will turn off and you’ll just hit the button again if you want it again. There a little bit of a compression here. I’ll show you guys what suspension does. Nice. The extra torque from this plug-in hybrid is really nice, but honestly, with 236 horsepower and just the standard hybrid RAV 4, that’s plenty. And with the ECVT, it delivers it so smoothly, you don’t really need all that extra power out here. There’s just so much sidewall here. I I have a good amount of trust in these tires. All right, we’ll go over this set of rocks here. Testing the break over a little bit. Get down into this rut. We’ll take a slightly different line on the way down than we did up. And if we want to test hill descent control, we’ll just let off and it’ll keep us going down at about 2 or 3 miles an hour. Hear some clicking and worring from the EBS. Press it again, it’ll turn off. Yeah, this class of soft rotor crossover SUV just keeps getting better and better. Yeah, the way it handles those big undulations and big big bumps is really commendable. And then the little stuff, the finer, rougher stuff, I think is mostly soaked up by the sidewall. But the suspension seems to handle it really well, too. All right. Yeah. Have a great dinner tonight and good safe travels, huh? Appreciate you riding right seat. You got it. Awesome job. Thank you. We’ll see you next time. All right, so impressive stuff off-road in the RAV 4 Woodland. That did actually way better than I thought it would being the plug-in hybrid. It rides about the same as the hybrid powertrain, which is what you want. And uh really there’s just extra torque, extra power here. EV driving range. I think it’s super cool that you could drive this in EV mode off-road. There’s just something something exciting about that. The only thing I kind of wish they kept is the the charge mode so that if you do roll up to the trail uh and you want to drive in electric mode, you could do that. Uh but I guess you’ll just have to plan ahead for after you plug this in to put it into hybrid mode so that it doesn’t deplete the battery and then you can use it off-road it if you want. 49 miles of electric driving range is a lot. So, that’ll probably go a little bit quicker off-road or on a trail. But, yeah, really, really impressed with the way this new RAV 4 drives. I’m kind of torn now between this Woodland and the GR Sport. The plug-in hybrid variants seem to drive the best. They just the power, the balance, the dynamics, they just feel that much more complete and more cohesive and exciting just mostly just because of that acceleration. But the powertrain tuning here is really well done. Pretty minimal wind noise here, too. I’m not sure if these PHEVs have a bit more sound insulation. It feels like they might. I don’t know. It’s just it’s quiet. I think what Toyota’s done here is they’ve made a really nice baseline for the new RAV 4 and then they’ve added trims that I think would appeal to some very specific niches. If you want something sporty, get the GR Sport. It’s freaking awesome. If you want something with a little bit more style and adventure, this wood trim is fantastic. I’m not exactly sure on options and how you can spec these trims. If you can get ventilated seats and stuff like that, but we’ve got a heated steering, we’ve got heated seats, that’s probably good enough for most people. Earlier today, I spent some time in the Limited that had all the features. digital rearview mirror, panoramic sunroof, ventilated seats, heated seats, the works. But honestly, the standard feature list here is pretty impressive, too. And you get the dash cam standard. You get voice activation standard. Hey, Toyota, I’m hot. Okay. Increasing the air flow and lowering the temperature. There you go. You can talk to your Toyota and it’ll do things for you. It’ll take you places and you can it’s more conversational instead of having to give it very specific prompts and it seems to work pretty well so far today. Dynamically, this woodland trim doesn’t seem too sloppy around a corner. It has good mechanical grip. Uh the ride is excellent as we’ve discussed at Nauseium. It doesn’t seem to be overpowered and undergripped or under damped or under tired. That’s what I’ve been going for. Undertired. Watch this. Almost a 90° exit here. Foot to the floor. Tires going to spin up a little bit, but it’s going to put that power down. Traction control is going to figure it all out. And then there we are. 70 mph in no time. That is properly quick. That’s impressive. Uh, let’s see. Where are our driving assistants? Turn stuff off really quickly there. That’s good. Easy. Yeah, the user interface here seems more modern and complete for from Toyota. Before the infotainment systems just kind of had a mishmash. There was a lot of settings that were in the center gauge cluster that you could only access while you were parked or it was just it was a mess. This is all in one place. It’s well organized. It’s super quick and responsive. And it seems to be very well designed and executed. And everything’s worked today, too. It hasn’t freaked out on me yet, which is a good thing. Okay, there’s a quick video on the RAV 4 Woodland plug-in hybrid. really really like this. This Rav 4 was painted in Everest. It looks great. It drives awesome. Uh highly recommendable in the RAV 4 lineup and um yeah, I think that was a good test on and off road. They said have this back by three and we’re here at 258. That’s it. Give you guys another look at this Everest color here in the shade. Probably can’t see too much with the back lighting, but it looks good. There are those rigid lights. Those come on when the headlights are on and the fog lamps are engaged. Just look at all this chunky sidewall. Very nice.
2026 Toyota RAV4 PHEV – Woodland Specs & Info
EXTERIOR: Everest
INTERIOR: Black
MECHANICAL
Powertrain: Sixth-generation Toyota Plug-In Hybrid System
2.5-liter 4-cyl gasoline engine
Lithium-ion battery
Drivetrain: Electronic On-Demand AWD
Transmission: Electronically Controlled Continuously Variable Transmission (eCVT)
Total System Output: 324 combined net hp
Engine Output Only: 172 lb-ft @ 4,300–4,900 rpm
Towing Capacity: 1,500 lbs
Suspension:
MacPherson strut (front)
Trailing wishbone multi-link (rear)
Manufacturer Estimated Fuel Economy: 42/35/38 mpg (city/hwy/combined – preliminary hybrid MPGs for reference)
EXTERIOR
Wheels: Unique 18-in 6-spoke matte metallic gray alloys with black lug nuts
Tires: All-Terrain Tires (Woodland exclusive)
Woodland Rugged Design Package:
Black upper and lower bumper/grille finishes
Black overfenders
Black roof rails with crossbars
Lighting:
LED eadlamps with DRL + Integrated Turn Signals and LED Clearance Lights
Rigid Industries® LED Fog Lights
Power Features:
Power hands-free liftgate with kick sensor
INTERIOR
Displays:
10.5-in Toyota Audio Multimedia (new 2nd-gen)
12.3-in digital gauge cluster
Audio: Six-speaker system
Seating:
SofTex-trimmed seats
8-way power driver seat
Heated front seats
Steering Wheel: Leather-wrapped, heated
Charging & Power:
Five total USB-C ports (2 front, 1 console, 2 rear)
45W Qi-compatible wireless phone charger
Convenience:
Automatic rain-sensing windshield wipers
TOYOTA AUDIO MULTIMEDIA – LATEST GENERATION
First integration of AT&T 5G connectivity
Fully customizable home-screen widgets
New embedded voice assistant (“Hey Toyota”) with faster response
SiriusXM with 360L
Integrated Spotify Streaming
Turn-by-turn navigation viewable on gauge cluster
Wireless Apple CarPlay® + Android Auto™
Simultaneous dual-Bluetooth device connection
SAFETY / DRIVER ASSIST
Toyota Safety Sense 4.0 (Latest Generation)
Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection
Full-Speed Range Dynamic Radar Cruise Control
Lane Tracing Assist
Lane Departure Alert w/ Steering Assist
Automatic High Beams
Road Sign Assist
Advanced Driver Assist Systems
Front Cross-Traffic Alert
Drive Recorder
Front & Rear Parking Assist with Auto Braking (PA w/ AB)
Downhill Assist Control (DAC)
Blind Spot Monitor (BSM) with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert
Front & rear side-impact door beams
8 airbags (front, seat-mounted side, side curtain, driver knee, passenger cushion)
3-point seatbelts for all positions, ELR/ALR for rear
Adjustable front shoulder anchors
Vehicle Proximity Notification System (VPNS)
Backup camera with dynamic guidelines
CONNECTED SERVICES
(Subscription required after trial; 5G network dependent)
Drive Connect: Cloud navigation, Google POI, Intelligent Assistant, Destination Assist
Wi-Fi Connect: AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot + integrated streaming (1-month music trial, 30-day hotspot trial)
Service Connect: Vehicle health reports / maintenance alerts
Remote Connect: Start/stop, door lock/unlock, vehicle locator, guest driver monitoring
Safety Connect: Emergency SOS, Roadside Assistance, Auto Collision Notification, Stolen Vehicle Locator
PACKAGE OPTIONS
Moonroof
#toyota #rav4 #phev #woodland
Event hospitality and vehicle access were provided by Toyota.
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