Ancient Toyota RAV4 EV for Sale Still Has the Factory Battery
The Tesla Roadster and Nissan Leaf were the first chapter of the modern EV age, but the preface was written in the 1990s when California introduced its first zero-emission vehicle mandate. This forced the largest automakers (by sales volume) to sell small batches of electric cars (and trucks), most of which have been largely forgotten. That doesn’t mean they’re gone.
Recently posted on the Obscure Cars For Sale Facebook Group, this 2002 Toyota RAV4 EV proves those early-modern EVs weren’t brittle science experiments. It still runs and drives, and even has its original battery pack, according to the seller, who’s asking $2,000 for this rare EV. However, given the age of the batteries and the rarity of the car, the seller considers this to be a project car, and advises any buyer looking to pick it up from its current home in Fort Collins, Colorado, to bring a trailer.
Obscure Cars For Sale via Facebook
The seller reports that “pretty much every body panel” is dented, dinged, or scratched, but that the car has never been crashed, is free of structural damage, and still sports its distinctive stickers. All of the EV-specific components work, according to the seller, as does everything that carried over from the gasoline RAV4. But as the seller notes, “that’s kind of expected for a ’90s RAV4.” The tires (installed in August 2024) are from the gasoline version, as the EV-spec tires are no longer available. The windshield also may not be the original heated one, and has a rock chip.
Cosmetic issues aside, this is a remarkable find. The RAV4 EV was introduced in 1997 to satisfy the California mandate, but for most of its production run cars were only available to fleets. Toyota began retail sales shortly before production ended in 2003, with just 328 making it into the hands of the general public. Its 27.4-kilowatt-hour battery pack used nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) chemistry similar to what Toyota used in its hybrids until recently, providing 95 miles of EPA-rated range.
Obscure Cars For Sale via Facebook
For charging, the first-gen RAV4 EV used the same MagneCharger as the GM EV1. It’s a paddle that fits into a slot instead of the conventional connector and plug used in subsequent mass-production EVs. Two MagneChargers connected to NEMA 14-50 plugs are included with the sale, and the seller claims the car’s onboard charging hardware works.
A second-generation RAV4 EV (based on the third-generation gasoline RAV4) was launched in 2012 with Tesla powertrain components (Toyota owned a small stake in Tesla at the time), followed by a small number of Scion iQ EVs, before Toyota went all-in on hydrogen fuel cells to satisfy the California mandate. One wonders how things might have turned out if Toyota had stuck with EVs as a complement to its bestselling hybrids, as it’s now finally doing today.
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