2025 Toyota Prius, RAV4 Plug-In Hybrids Drop Prime Name

Please just call them plug-in hybrids now

written by Chris Bruce^{Correspondent
Chris Bruce has worked in the automotive industry since 2011 and has written thousands of stories about cars, motorsports and motorcycles in that time. Chris is a correspondent for Edmunds and has written for Autoblog, Autoviva, Hagerty, InsideEVs, Motor1 and New Roads. He has also hosted hundreds of podcast episodes. For hobbies, Bruce enjoys building plastic models of robots and cars. He also enjoys video games, particularly the 16-bit variety. His dog keeps him busy.}
edited by Nick Yekikian^{Senior News Editor
Nick Yekikian has worked in the automotive industry since 2019. He has written close to a thousand car-related articles and tested and reviewed more than 200 vehicles over the course of his career. Nick is the Senior News Editor at Edmunds and has also contributed to MotorTrend, Automobile Magazine and Super Street. When Nick isn't zipping around town in his latest used-car find, he's probably making digital art in Photoshop or playing disc golf with friends.}
9/26/2024
Share:

Toyota dumps the Prime name in favor of the Plug-in Hybrid moniker.
The company says the change is "to help consumers more easily identify the powertrain choices."
The models also wear new badges.

Toyota has been using the Prime branding for identifying some of its plug-in hybrid models since the 2017 model year. However, the word "Prime" likely has closer associations with a certain online retail giant than with an automotive powertrain. Any reason for this confusion is gone because the PHEV versions of the 2025 Prius and RAV4 now go by the Plug-in Hybrid moniker. Frankly, it's a move that just makes more sense.

“The switch to the RAV4 Plug-in name is intended to help consumers more easily identify the powertrain choices among RAV4 models,” the company said when announcing the change. “In addition to the model naming change, the Toyota logo on the front and rear of the vehicle will no longer have a blue ‘halo’ within."

See 48 2024 Toyota RAV4 Prime vehicles for sale near you

See All for Sale

Toyota's now defunct Prime badge

Beyond the revised name and badges, there are no significant changes to the 2025 RAV4 Plug-in. Deliveries of the vehicle begin in late 2024. The base SE grade starts at $45,260, including the $1,395 destination fee, and the XSE version begins at $49,130.

The 2025 Prius Plug-in Hybrid also doesn’t change much, except it now features a PHEV badge on the hatchback. There’s no pricing available yet for the new model year Prius.

In 2023, Toyota delivered 26,073 examples of the plug-in-hybrid RAV4, which was up 40.4% from 2022. Total RAV4 sales across all of the variants were 434,943 units. The company moved 7,557 units of the plug-in-hybrid Prius in 2023, which was down 36.3% from 2022. Prius deliveries in 2023 totaled 38,052.

The new badge the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid will wear from 2025 onward

Edmunds says

Without knowledge of Toyota's branding, a customer wouldn't understand that a Prime badge indicates the vehicle is a plug-in hybrid. The switch to a more straightforward name makes sense.

by Chris Bruce

Chris Bruce has worked in the automotive industry since 2011 and has written thousands of stories about cars, motorsports and motorcycles in that time. Chris is a correspondent for Edmunds and has written for Autoblog, Autoviva, Hagerty, InsideEVs, Motor1 and New Roads. He has also hosted hundreds of podcast episodes. For hobbies, Bruce enjoys building plastic models of robots and cars. He also enjoys video games, particularly the 16-bit variety. His dog keeps him busy.

edited by Nick Yekikian

Nick Yekikian has worked in the automotive industry since 2019. He has written close to a thousand car-related articles and tested and reviewed more than 200 vehicles over the course of his career. Nick is the Senior News Editor at Edmunds and has also contributed to MotorTrend, Automobile Magazine and Super Street. When Nick isn't zipping around town in his latest used-car find, he's probably making digital art in Photoshop or playing disc golf with friends.