- Toyota says leaving the Prime is a matter of easy visibility
- Otherwise, the RAV4 and Prius plug-in hybrids continue with a few changes
- Toyota sold the top PHEVs in California's most emitting states
The prime time is over for Toyota's plug-in hybrids, as the automaker makes marketing moves to rebrand them as plug-in hybrids from other automakers.
The automaker announced Thursday that it will it no longer uses its “Prime” badge on PHEVs starting with the 2025 model year. As it introduces the RAV4 Prime and Prius Prime, it will replace the 2025 Toyota RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid and 2025 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid, both of which are also detailed today with pricing, specs, and driving information.
According to Toyota, this is not an attempt to remake the RAV4 Prime or its plug-in hybrids in general but to find them. in the same place as other PHEVs.
“The switch to the RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle name simply follows a naming convention in the automotive industry,” Mike Tripp, Toyota's group vice president of North American marketing, told Green Car Reports.
2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime XSE
Toyota believes that dropping the brand will help customers easily see plug-in hybrids. “Consumers have so many powertrain options today, so we're moving away from the brand name and embracing the PHEV industry convention to help consumers easily identify electrified powertrain choices between the RAV4, and all models with multiple electrified powertrains,” added Tripp.
With Prime gone, are Toyota PHEVs still premium?
The decision feels, in some ways, like an about-face about why Toyota issued the Prime badge to its plug-in hybrids in the first place—which was to differentiate them from other PHEVs put on the market like very efficient in every way.
Compared to other PHEVs of the time, At Toyota they innovated and did very well and its top models. Toyota introduced the name Prime in 2016, with the 2017 Toyota Prius Prime. The original Prius Prime was among the first cars to feature a heat pump, and the current Toyota RAV4 Prime offers 42 miles on electric and 38-mpg hybrid after that, with 302 hp of combined output. At the Toyota RAV4 Prime debut, we called it “the way a plug-in hybrid should be,” with the quick acceleration of a sports car and the surprisingly good off-road capability of an EV.
2025 Toyota Camry
Toyota deflected GCR's question about whether the new marketing angle is part of a play toward greater sales volume, accessibility, or connecting with new buyers or regions—like what the brand has done with its hybrids over the years. Currently, Toyota offers hybrid versions of nearly every lineup, while the 2025 Camry will go all-hybrid, joining the Sienna and Crown families.
The automaker has waffled on messages for featured cars and hybrids in recent years. As part of the vaguely worded “Electrified Diversified” campaign by 2023, which began shortly after the arrival of its all-electric bZ4X, Toyota tried to diversify between battery EVs, hybrid EVs, plug-in EVs, and fuel trains. -cell EV— leaving the market confused as to whether all-electric models were plug-in EVs (really plug-in hybrids) or battery EVs.
More than a fifth of Prius models are sold with a charging port
Currently, the Toyota brand only has the RAV4 and Prius hybrids. For the 2023 model year, Toyota sold 57% of its RAV4 models in non-hybrid form. The RAV4 Hybrid made up 37% of RAV4 sales, while the RAV4 Prime accounted for the remaining 6% of sales. As for the Prius, and if you look at the 2023 model year, Toyota sold 79% as hybrids, while the plug-in Prius Prime made up 21% of the hybrid icon's sales.
2023 Toyota Prius Prime
It should be noted that the RAV4 is the strongest seller overall, however, so it reached 26,073 RAV4 Prime sales in the 2023 calendar year compared to 7,557 Prius Prime sales.
So far Toyota seems to be sticking to a plug-in hybrid sales model that works best with California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulations. It's no surprise that California is the top state for both of these hybrid models. After the Golden State, Toyota lists New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Washington as the top regions for the RAV4 Prime, as well as Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont for the Prius Prime—all on a sales basis.
Most of those states maintain CARB regulations and the upcoming Advanced Clean Cars II standards will specifically encourage long-range PHEVs. Toyota says that in some markets they are ready to extend the plug-in hybrid range to more than 120 miles. So while everything is set to bring those most powerful PHEVs to the US, they likely won't carry the Prime name.