The wildly popular Toyota RAV4 was completely redesigned for the 2026 model year, and for the first time, it offered exclusively hybrid drivetrains. Given the significance of this redesign, one might expect the year two updates to be minimal, and that’s mostly the case for the 2027 RAV4, but the handful of updates are good. The RAV4 Woodland Off-Road gets slightly more off-road for 2027 with a reworked suspension that adds an inch of ground clearance for a total of 9.1 inches, and all plug-in hybrid RAV4s, including the RAV4 GR Sport, now have a NACS port with DC fast charging capabilities and an integrated 11 kW AC charger.
I’m never happy to see prices go up, but at least Toyota has kept the increases to a minimum, with different trim levels costing between $400 and $755 more than last year. The cheapest 2027 Toyota RAV4 you can buy is the front-wheel-drive LE version which now costs $33,895, which is $400 more than last year, while the cheapest 2027 RAV4 PHEV you can buy is the all-wheel-drive SE which now costs $43,695, which is $600 more than last year.
The most significant changes concern the Woodland and GR Sport versions
The RAV4 Woodland’s new raised suspension features new springs, shocks, and bumpers to accompany its extra inch of clearance, and it also gets redesigned all-weather floor mats. That lift comes at a cost, with the 2027 Woodland being $755 more at $42,250, and it becomes 1 mpg worse in the city than last year – it’s rated at a still-outstanding 40 mpg city, 35 mpg highway, and 38 mpg combined, though. (The Subaru Forester Wilderness Hybrid offers 0.2 inches more ground clearance than the Woodland’s 9.1 inches, if that really matters to you.) The Woodland PHEV loses 3 miles of EV range, now sitting at 46 miles, and although its city fuel economy dropped 3 mpg to 38, its highway mileage increased 1 mpg to 35, and its combined rating remains 37 mpg.
The 2026 RAV4 GR Sport plug-in hybrid left us perplexed because it had worse charging capabilities than all other RAV4 PHEVs, but that’s been changed for 2027. All plug-in RAV4s now come with a NACS port for the first time, and the GR Sport gains DC fast charging capability and the 11 kW onboard charger that the rest of the lineup already had. Every PHEV RAV4 is now capable of charging from 10% to 80% in the same time as last year, around 35 minutes. For some reason, the 2027 RAV4 GR Sport’s electric-only range drops 3 miles to an estimated 45 miles, but that’s still a good result.
Other tweaks include all PHEVs now having their charge port on the driver’s side, every model gets a standard rear-view camera washer and all-wheel-drive RAV4s now have Multi-Terrain Select with Rock & Dirt mode and Mud & Sand mode. Toyota says the 2027 RAV4 hybrids should arrive in dealerships later this year, but PHEV models will arrive early next year.
Gn bussni
