The fact that the RAV4 has hit the bull’s eye for Toyota is evident from the annual sales statistics of the United States. Not only in the United States, Toyota’s SUV is also an international success. Ten million copies have been sold since 1994 – spanning five generations.
For years, the Toyota Camry was the most popular passenger car in the United States, but for several years now that title has gone to the RAV4. Last year, no fewer than 535,000 North American (United States and Canada) customers entered a new RAV4, a truly immense number. In 2018 and 2019, the RAV4 even called itself the best-selling SUV in the world. In Europe, 133,000 RAV4s went over the counter last year and this SUV is also very popular in China. In 2019, 127,000 Chinese customers chose a brand new RAV4. Of the ten million copies that Toyota has sold since 1994, more than 2 million found an owner in Europe. More than 130,000 of these are attributable to the fifth generation RAV4 introduced at the beginning of last year. In the Netherlands, 2,500 RAV4s were sold last year. Since 1994, the Dutch sales counter of the RAV4 and Funcruiser has reached sales of over 24,300 units.
The first generation of the RAV4, whose letters stand for Recreational Active Vehicle 4 wheel drive, shone at the Geneva Motor Show in 1994. It was the production version of the RAV Four Concept presented in Tokyo in 1989 (photos 2 and 3). In its first year of life, the RAV4, the first generation of which was in the order books in the Netherlands as Funcruiser, was only available as three-door, a year later the five-door Wagon came to strengthen the ranks. The three-door version has disappeared since the third generation. A small series of fully electric versions of the first and third generations of RAV4 were sold in the US state of California.
The current RAV4, designed by Tatsuya Sonoda, is on the GA-K version of the modular TNGA platform, just like almost all recently released Toyota models. Besides a 2.5 Hybrid, the SUV is also available with only a 2.0 four-cylinder. Later this year, the Dutch delivery list will be expanded with the 306 hp RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid. The Hybrid version is 85 percent of the current generation RAV4s sold in the Netherlands.