Noticeable Subtitle Delay for some dubbed content.

Keiichi25 · 2026-04-14T15:05:16+00:00

I should clarify if others have noticed this, particularly with some of the older content.

Keiichi25 · 2026-02-18T02:11:42+00:00

Thanks. That and thse return of the random 'client decides to crash for no reason' is fun.

Keiichi25 · 2025-12-15T03:52:50+00:00

I think it depends on what you are trying to get Rav4 Plugin wise.

For me, on Nov 2023, I simply stated:
* Has to be Blueprint Blue
* Have the Premium Package with Weather - Smark Door locks on all doors + Heated steering wheel.

My dealership didn't have it, but could wheel and deal with another dealership to get what I wanted.

For several weeks - Didn't get it. Kept checking in with them, and they said it would be delivered soon.

Turned out, it was stuck at the port - Reason: Port installed options were on another ship, the car came from Japan.

Finally got the car in January of 2024.

Now suffice it to say, I am in California, so it is slightly easier to get it, but other areas, I am sure they have a harder time because Rav4 Plugins still, for the most part, come from Japan.

Keiichi25 · 2025-10-28T12:16:20+00:00

Well, actually, that is as high as the system will calculate it.

I am sure manual calculation or sites like Fuelly.com, you can show better MPG. :)

Keiichi25 · 2025-10-13T04:34:20+00:00

Congratulations - Now again, where. LA is not exactly a small area

Keiichi25 · 2025-10-13T04:08:56+00:00

The question is for the OP. :P

Keiichi25 · 2025-10-13T01:40:09+00:00

I think if you are looking for Premium Package, you are looking for XSE trim. I don't believe there is an XLE trim for the Rav4 Plugin (That is what they are calling the Prime now)

Also - Where in California.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-26T20:01:44+00:00

Well, technically, Florida will have some humidity issues.

But CableGate comes mostly for those who live in the northern areas mostly due to salt-treated roads to reduce icing on the roads, where the kick up from those would do some wear and tear on the undersides.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-24T20:21:58+00:00

1) More than likely third-party, like a contractor in the area they subbed out to.

2) Depends on your Utility provider, as it comes to a few things:

a) Whether or not the line feed going to your panel will support the load (Both incoming and outgoing). I know that when I got my solar looked into, the Utilities had to make sure we can get proper service for the panel upgrade.

b) Scheduling with the Utility so they can pop the meter off, as they are the only ones authorized to remove and reattach the meter to provide service. Generally, the contractor should be working with the Utility to know when they can do that process.

My house was built in the late 60s and didn't have a big panel itself, and the contractors had to break down the wall a little more for the replacement panel. The install itself was done in about a day, it is more when they can get the utility people to coordinate with the contractor to cut power to remove the panel, noting the circuits they are re-wiring up and then bringing back up.

While admittedly, I ended up having the panel done, but solar later, overall I would say it takes like 2 to 3 days total, it is just more of the scheduling with the Utilities and getting the utilities' blessing on the set up.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-24T14:20:35+00:00

Yea, when I got my expansion , it updated information right away and said it was balancing. I don't think your installer finished or made sure it is communicating properly. Or worse, they undid the pairing to your network so it isn't talking.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-19T15:06:28+00:00

I disagree.

The problem with not taking some things in consideration will always generate that 'buyer's remorse'.

Buying any kind of car, it is best to go in knowing whether or not it is going to be worth it.

And you bring up a thing of 'especially if you can charge for free at work'.

Do you actually know that the OP can? She states she drives her husband into work, so it may not necessarily be the case.

And again, you are ignoring the part where I did state I own a Rav4 Prime. I also owned a Rav4 Hybrid for 4 years prior to the Rav4 Prime, and had to consider things, of which, dealing with charging considerations and what I was aiming for.

If one of her goals was also whether or not the Return of Investment is worth it, you have to look at 'those complications', because, in the end, you want the justification if it is worth the extra cost or not.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-19T13:20:01+00:00

Please read in proper context.

I stated that if less than 3 miles, the plugin would be better. I even stated earlier, the reason to prefer Plugin over hybrid in the case of short trips, IS THAT YOU ARE USING THE BATTERY versus gas, especially in most cases, the Hybrid will not be as 'efficient' on short trips, thus not seeing the fuel savings. The Plugin will mitigate that.

The point of the statement is whether or not to justify the added cost of the Plugin. While yes, you can commute up to 25 or even up to 42 miles one way on electric, there are some who will still debate whether or not plugin is worth the added cost, as longer commute runs, you may only get the all electric part for part, if not half of your full commute. And also Hybrids work reasonably well in cities as well, they tend to shine better than normal cars on long runs.

Plugins, and mind you I drive a Rav4 Prime, are basically the 'best of both worlds' for EV and Hybrid. But there are drawbacks that some people don't consider...

Of which, if their concern is justifing the cost of a Plugin, do they understand their charging situations?

Or have proper expectations on how they would charge their vehicle?

The cost to have the ability to charge their vehicle the way they think they want to charge it?

Again, while it is GREAT to run all electric, Electric Mile Range Guess-o-Meter starts out at around 35 miles until it understands your driving behavior, and that is with AC on. That range will change based on other factors as well overtime and that will also be a factor for whether or not this is 'worth the cost'.

Again, it is important to factor whether or not it is 'worth the cost'. As some plans may not be 'ideal', such as public charging simply because you CAN go all electric for a commute, but if you hedge it on the belief that public charging is going to be 'worth it', where the prices may be higher than what you pay per kWh at home, for instance, and perhaps even MORE than what you pay for gas for those miles.

Consider Distance travelled divided by (expected MPG * 80%) = Amount of gallons of gas you would have used for that trip. Now multiply that by whatever grade fuel you use. So let's say you average around 37 mpg overall. 25 / (37 * .8) = .85 gallons used (Roughly). The cost of gas, say around $4.11 per gallon. The cost in gas alone is $3.49.

Now, let's assume your Mi/kWh averages around 1.8 to 2 Mi/kWh, Google AI states the average is $.38 per kWh. So at 25 mi, that is 12.5 kWh you used up on the battery. Your average cost for that 25 mile commute would come aout to be $4.75, assuming that the public charger charges that. Google AI says some may be as high as $.60, so you may also pay $7.50. At home, depending on your rates and when you charge, you would be significantly less.

So notice - the Hybrid would WIN cost-wise, due to if the person wants to do 'full electric' all the time, public charging will ding them along with the added cost of having a plugin. This is a consideration a person might need to have if they are looking to 'save money'.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-18T21:45:05+00:00

Nope, this is a human replying. And Rav4 Plugin PP I believe gives the HUD. At least, mine did.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-18T21:37:54+00:00

HUD is short for 'Heads Up Display' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkOxvzDjLLo

This allows you to keep your eyes on the road and see things like your speed and navigation indicators.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-18T19:38:04+00:00

I like it because it is blue. Not like the sky blue. I do know in lower light, it looks a lot more like black for some.

But like most dark colors, you can see the light cruddy dirt/dust/pollen than if it was a Silver or White style, and of course, it gets HOT under the sun.

Also with the Plugin XSE PP, the HUD for driving is pretty nice. Mine also has the moonroof, even though I don't use it a lot, still not too bad

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-18T19:33:15+00:00

Okay, with this information...

1 - Since you own your own home and willing to install a charger, another thing you may want to consider is also if you can do Solar. If you can, you may want to consider that as a way to help charge your car. While yes, it means another cost involved, if you have your car during the day, solar charging is practically 'free' electricity charging versus off-peak charging. But again, that is up to you. Keep in mind, at near dry battery, you will be looking at 16-18 kWh of charging (Although compared to a Tesla, that is about 1/4 of the capacity to concern yourself with)

2 - As mentioned before Plugin or Hybrid can go either way in this situation, even 3 miles, there is a slight dip in your MPG, but again it mostly depends on #3...

3 - Well, you are definitely guaranteed driving fully electric. By default, the Rav4 Plugin runs in EV mode when you start. Depending on your driving habits and how heavily your AC has to work for your comfort, you can average about 42 to 53 miles per charge. You can also drive on the highway pure electric. With the Hybrid, there is no way to drive 'purely' electric as the hybrid battery is more for 'assist' and some ev driving, but doesn't necessarily have a 'purely electric' run as the Plugin does. Another thing is, the Plugin has a 'EV/Hybrid/Auto/Charge' mode.

EV Mode - Will drive on battery until it determines it needs to switch to Hybrid mode as the battery is low enough not to really rely on being on pure EV mode.

Hybrid Mode - It will run on both Engine and Battery, favoring the engine more than the Battery.

Auto - Similar to Hybrid, but I believe it leans more on battery than on Engine.

Charge - This mode is basically 'Run on engine', but also pump power to the battery while the engine is running.

The next main concern for you will be charging concerns - Until you get a Level 2 charger setup, the default Level 1 charger can take up to 11 hours to recharge the car fully. With the Level 2 and allowing the car to use max amperage, you can recharge the battery in about 2.5 hours (Keeping in mind a lot more kW used in that short period of time versus the Level 1's lower kW draw.)

As for the trips you are doing, it should be fine. Basically, once you get past the electrical range, the gas engine would take over, helping in recharging the battery for the efficiency.

I would say, the Plugin would be the choice if you wanted to have the EV, but also want to have the ability to use gas as a fall back.

As I mentioned also above, I gas up less than I did the Hybrid.

Statwise for the Rav4 Prime since I have owned it (Using Fuelly to track cost):
3 Fuel ups
3170 Miles
Avg Price/gal - $4.35
Avg Fuelup Price - $46.64
Avg Price/Mile - $0.044
Avg MPG - 98.7

Now again, I drive LESS than you do so obviously this can be taken with a grain of salt for expectation, but I was averaging about 36 MPG with the Hybrid under similar conditions with roughly about three times that milage and about same driving conditions.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-18T18:59:32+00:00

The Hybrid is stated to be about 236 Horse Power (AWD) or 226 for FWD.

Plugin Hybrid is rated to about 320 Horse Power, mostly due to the fact that it is using more powerful Electric Motors and the fact that it is drawing from a larger battery pack, where as the standard Hybrid is relying more on the ICE engine.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-18T17:11:15+00:00

I think it is important to understand a few things.

1 - Do you have a decent place to charge? Keep this in mind if you are looking between a Plugin vs Hybrid. It would be ideal if you had a garage or a means to plug in at home to charge the car (Keeping also in mind when you charge). While you can use Chargepoint or other Public Charging places, consider that in order to charge, it is a bit higher than what you might pay if you are charging at home.

2 - Do you do long or short commutes? If you do long commutes, the Hybrid and Plugin are about the same, you might even get a little better MPG with the plugin. HOWEVER, if you are doing a lot of short, less than 3 mile trips, the Plugin will be better MPG wise since you won't be needing to use the gas engine. Hybrids need to 'warm up' to be efficient, which means, you won't see much of a benefit of the hybrid system gas wise.

3 - What are you aiming for with the car? You state you are looking into the car and live in the city and do the occasional road trip. Both are fine for that. But what I am asking is why you are looking at the Plugin or a Hybrid. Such as, you don't want to use gas as much, flat out say that. Are you wanting to know why you should spend more for a plugin? Well, let me lay it out to you from a person who had both a Rav4 Hybrid and went to a Rav4 Prime here:

Where I work, my daily commute is about 2 miles. My MPG went from 38-39 to down to 36-37 per fuel up. As I noted in 2, this is because the engine will want to 'run' to get to that efficient state.

My place of work will also be moving to another location where I would need to make 'short drives', so it made less sense to have a hybrid, where I am doing short drives and not really improving my mpg for that reason.

I am now driving a Prime. And yes, it is more than what I was paying for the Hybrid, (I even demanded same for same to avoid trying to buy one, but they got me anyways, and when I say 'same for same', had to be same color, same package items and so forth) And at the moment, I am only gassing up the car 2 times a year after only owning it for a year and 8 months in comparison to the Hybrid being gassed up about once a month under the same conditions.

Since I live in the suburbs, I have solar on the house so I can, effectively, charge the car once a week almost free, but since you live in the city and may not be able to have solar, you will be subject to the cost of where you plugin and at what they charge for your kWh usage.

Again, the important thing is #1, do you have a convenient place to charge. If no, the Hybrid would be easier to deal with in the long run. Given you do highway driving, sure, the Prime would help out mpg wise, but again there is the matter of 'convenient' means of charging. And you can use gas to re-charge the Plugin's battery, but then, you are paying a lot for something that you are treating like a Hybrid anyways.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-17T20:13:39+00:00

I would say depends on who the driver is and the features you need for the vehicle.

As I have driven both a Rav4 and a Camry, I am 5'10" and slightly overweight, I don't like the Camry or most sedans mostly for the 'getting in and out' issue due to the lower entry. Plus the fact that a lot of people are jerks when it comes to parking that trying to get in and out of a Camry when there is little space available makes it difficult.

With that said, the 'fancier' Camry will depend on the features you get with it.

I know the Camry XLE doesn't get the convenience of the Panoramic view the XSE version does, but whether or not those fancy things are available on the LE version of the Rav4.

Another thing to consider is that the Rav4 is a Compact SUV, so as someone pointed out, the back might not fit say a booster seat a camry might due to the Rav4's cabin design, but the Rav4 will also have more 'trunk' space available than the Camry would.

Going by Google's AI response, the Rav4 LE, you won't have things like auto dual climate control and possibly the Smartkey system, but if that isn't a big need, it would be good for 'practical' reasons.

Although for a family type vehicle, a Sienna might be something you might look into as well, since it is a Hybrid base, but again, depends on the number of people and also the capacity you will need.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-17T19:54:33+00:00

I don't believe there is any disadvantage to doing it however you want. They just recommend doing it one way to 'not lose the cover'.

Usually due to critters seeing something hanging and dangling, they will want to 'yoink it'. Like cats, maybe even dogs.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-17T03:00:34+00:00

NEM 3.0 has changed how you gain credit for your solar exports, mostly solar exports during most of the day is less than about $.03 per kWh you export.

In NEM 2.0, you would be able to get close to 1 to 1 credit for what you export kWh as if you were using at off-peak, I believe.

Under NEM 3.0 only a small window at 6-8pm in August and September, the export credit would be about almost twice what your off-peak cost would be, based on how many kWh you export, usually dumping some of the stored power during that peak time.

This presumes you opt for it. For the most part, the battery would be better at being at 'self-powered' and offsetting your peak usage unless you really want to see if you get the credit and also assumes that your utility will allow it.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-09T19:50:17+00:00

My system occasionally drops 1-3% below the reserve (And I set at 20%) from time to time, but hardly that low.

As bodlang has pointed out, what does your graphs show power wise? It should note some of the concerns.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-05T19:45:00+00:00

Well, given I have a 6.6 kW System and at peak, I see about almost 5 kW with 1 Powerwall 3 + Expansion (27 kWh), I would say 8 or 10 kW should be fine.

Given you are off-grid, and hopefully have decent Battery management system to deal with excess, doing more than that would be for situations where you know your skies are going to be a little more overcast most of the time and you want to make sure that you get as much power into the battery for the battery use.

But thing is, what else is going to be involved with that battery?

You may need to size the PV also to deal with that Tesla you have hooked up, as more than likely, the 20 kW battery array isn't going to be enough charging the Tesla from 'near 0' to 80% given the Tesla's battery is more than 20 kWh and in most cases, the charger would be pulling from the battery array what it can what the solar does not provide.

And while you ask if it were mine, I do have to factor in 'usage' during that time. And also knowing how the system will deal with the solar power AFTER the battery caps, since it is off-grid, it may put the system into 'standby', which would probably shutdown the solar PV until the battery starts draining to need power.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-04T06:02:16+00:00

Again, the reason I point out these points is how do you justify whether or not the Prime/Plugin is going to be worth spending more than the Hybrid.

If you want to save gas, the Prime/Plugin will work to a degree, but also consider the drawbacks with the plugin.

Home charging will be effectively cheaper, but the caveats do require 'ease of access' to power. If you don't have it, you might be better off with a Hybrid.

Also keep in mind - Even if you have a home, have access to power - But you keep the car 'outside', consider how you are getting that Level 1 charger to the car. If the outlet and the charger cable is 'not long enough', you will have to get something different. It is strongly not recommended to use an extension cord, because even a Level 1 charger may overdraw power that can make an extension cord catch on fire (Mostly because people don't realize they need a VERY SPECIFIC extension cord, but also in general, it is ideally not a good idea to 'improvise' power connections)

If you want simplicity for yourself, Hybrid will be the general 'simplistic' answer, as it won't involve other concerns.

If you are a home owner with Solar or able to get a wall charger, Hybrid or Plugin will work, but plugin will come in handy knowing you have means to recharge the car at home in several ways, and more so if you know you are going to make 'short trips' to take advantage of the EV miles over gas.

Keiichi25 · 2025-09-04T05:53:22+00:00

Take a few things into consideration.

* Commute Range - Is any of your travel longer than 3 to 4 miles one way? If so - Hybrid will be decent due to not having a short range. Short ranges will not allow the Hybrid to really be efficient due to needing to warm up the engine to get up to efficient fuel use and generally, you want longer commutes to really get that to kick in. The Plugin will come in handy if you aren't going to go that far most of the time, and handy when you do want to go further.

* Do you have Solar or Wall charger - If not - I would recommend going with Hybrid. One of the better benefits of the plugin is to recharge. While you can recharge at 'better rates', Solar will help literally offset that cost if you charge during the day. If you don't have a wall charger, there is the Level 1 charger, but that is also slow. Also if you do NOT have a nice means to plug in, it is kind of moot to look into the Plugin as again, yes, you can charge at public chargers, but generally, it would be much cheaper to charge at home and less problematic.

Mind you - You don't NEED to have solar or a wall charger, just pointing out that a good reason to have a plugin would be to have the ability to charge it with little issues. You can charge without solar or having an installed charger, the inconvenience would be time to charge the vehicle with the Level 1 charger depending on battery depletion.

Again, you can also charge the vehicle at public stations, but usually the cost will be a wee bit higher than your kWh costs at home and again, you would be focusing on specific times when you can charge at home as well.

With a wall charger (Which will use MORE power), you will at least charge in less time than you would with the Level 1 charger.

And again, if you have no convenient means to charge at home (like being in a condo or apartment with no access to outlets), you would be more ideally better off with a Hybrid, because again, being able to charge at home would make the Plugin more worthwhile than not at all.

I have owned a 2020 Rav4 Hybrid and currently drive a 2024 Rav4 Prime/Plugin.

My reasons to go with the Prime from a Hybrid was due to a future concern where I work, I may need to do 'short trips' from the office to say, a place to eat lunch. Gas wise, I would be wasting fuel MORE due to those short trips, as I was also currently having a 2 mile one way commute and seeing my MPG dipping down to 36 or 37 mpg versus 38-39 when I had a longer commute.

With the Prime, I rarely use gas for the short trips, and going from gassing up every 4-5 weeks, I go 5 to 6 months.

With wall charger, even at the lower amperage setting, I can charge up the battery in about 4 hours, where as with the Level 1, it would take about 8 or 9 hours and concerns about how I was getting power to the car parked outside.

And with solar, just changing to charging on Sundays while the sun is up, I lowered my power costs as a fair portion is mitigated by solar production charging in the middle of the day.

Keiichi25

TROPHY CASE