Plug-In Crossover Comparison: Ford Escape PHEV Vs Toyota RAV4 Prime

Let's take a look at how they differ in terms of price, range, battery and more.

Ford Escape PHEV and Toyota RAV4 Prime

Mark Kane

By: Mark Kane

Jun 8, 2020 at 4:24pm ET

Add InsideEVs as a preferred source in Google

Comment

The U.S. plug-in hybrid market will finally get some boost this year, as two potentially heavy-weight players emerged - Toyota RAV4 Prime and Ford Escape PHEV (Ford Kuga PHEV in Europe).

Here we compare the two recently announced models, although not all the data is yet available, as they will be in the same segment and Ford even directly pointed out the efficiency advantage over the RAV4 Prime in its press release.

2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime

Ford Escape PHEV

All-electric range

The most important number for plug-in hybrids is all-electric range, as this is basically the major thing that differentiates them from conventional vehicles. If the EV range is longer than your daily commute, it might allow you to switch to zero-emission most of the time.

Manufacturer-estimated EPA all-electric range is:

Toyota RAV4 Prime: up to 42 miles (67.6 km); the website says also 39 miles (62.8 km)
Ford Escape PHEV: 37 miles (59.5 km)

The official numbers are not yet known, but it seems that Toyota will have slightly more range.

Battery capacity

The EV range depends on the battery capacity and here we can clearly see that the RAV4 Prime has a few more kWh.

Toyota RAV4 Prime: 18.1 kWh (according to Japanese specs)
Ford Escape PHEV: 14.4 kWh

The difference of 25.7% however did not translate into an equal difference in all-electric range (13.5%, assuming 42 miles vs 37 miles). There are differences in the size of the vehicles, overall efficiency and also the available capacity of the batteries (currently unknown).