2026 Toyota RAV4 Woodland Tested: A Hybrid for All Speeds and All Seasons

• What's new: Every version RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid makes the same 324 horsepower, thanks to a 2.5-liter four-cylinder and a 22.7-kWh battery driving two electric motors.
• Why it matters: You can get a quick little SUV that still has an impressive electric-only range; we went 62 miles on a single charge.
• Edmunds says: The RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid looks just like a standard RAV4 Hybrid but proves quicker and quieter on a daily basis, as well as at our test track.

And there's really no trick to getting the most out of this RAV4 either. Just mash the accelerator pedal to the floor, and you'll likely get pretty close to our number of 5.7 seconds to 60 mph. But where a non-PHEV hybrid starts to lose steam, which is usually right before 50 mph, the PHEV leans on its sizable battery to keep the party going. We flashed through the quarter mile in 14.1 seconds at nearly 98 mph. That's not only fast for a small SUV, it's also about what my old 1994 Pontiac Trans Am was capable of. I try not to think about that.

But if you're not in any particular hurry, selecting the RAV4 PHEV's electric-only mode gives you enough oomph to get around town, and you can even get up to freeway speeds. I performed our acceleration test in this mode and got a 0-60 time of 9.1 seconds and finished the quarter mile in a still somewhat respectable 17.0 seconds at just over 80 mph. To put that into perspective, that's barely slower than a standard (non-hybrid) Honda CR-V. As an added bonus, we drove this particular RAV4 PHEV Woodland 62 miles on battery power alone. With a range like that, this is about as close to an EV as you can get without buying one.

Decent is good

I knew the Woodland wouldn't really deliver the same numbers as we got in the GR Sport, but it still did well for itself. Despite the Woodland's chunky Dunlop Grandtrek all-terrain tires, the Woodland still stopped in a respectable 126 feet from 60 mph. Even though I thought the tires were a little noisy, squealing their way down to a stop, the Woodland remained stable and predictable. All-terrain tires tend to cause a truck or an SUV to wiggle and squirm under hard braking, so this was a pleasant surprise. I felt the ABS system was well calibrated for these tires, too, with no real sense of locking or clumsy antilock behavior.

The Woodland also acquitted itself nicely in the handling department. Around our skidpad, that's essentially a big circle we use to judge cornering grip, the Woodland achieved a decent 0.82 g of lateral grip. That puts it, again, just behind the standard Honda CR-V, and the Woodland never felt sloppy. The steering doesn't offer much, if any, feedback, but it's a trustworthy little SUV, which was more than I could say about the last RAV4 PHEV's handling, or at least back when Toyota called it the RAV4 Prime, which I called abysmal. 

A plug-in hybrid powertrain used to be pretty rare and not worth the extra money. But Toyota looks to really have it figured out. Our 2026 Woodland PHEV came in at $48,650, which is roughly $5,400 more than a similarly equipped RAV4 Hybrid in the Woodland trim. If you're into getting the most for your dollar, the PHEV version is a hard sell, but if you want robust acceleration on command with the option of a serene EV experience around town, and seriously impressive range and the ability to DC fast charge, the RAV4 PHEV (sans the GR Sport version) is a compelling option.