Dont do this to your RAV4 Prime and Prius Prime

Folks if you are hiring an electrician to install a level 2 charger in the garage you may as well go big and have installed a 40 amp charge plug and 50 amp breaker.

It will only charge the Prime with the 3.3 kWh onboard charger at a rate of 16 amps and charge speeds are 4.5 hours from empty but what if you decide to buy a Tesla in a few years?

That 16 amp charge plug and the inferior wire the electrician pulled and the 20 amp breaker will all need replaced unless you are ok waiting almost 3 times longer for the Tesla to charge vs a 40 amp.

Just a suggestion. A 40 amp will dial down to the 16 amps the Prime will accept besides the cord on a 40 amp is beefier and will not get hot when charging your Prime.

I have a rav4 prime year 2022 and the filter is located in the rear rh passanger side where is the other filter located?

New to a hybrid and thank you sir for fantastic information. I live rural so i use the gas engine often until I get to town. But knowing about the filters and everything else is extremely helpful

I use E-0 in my kitplane, and in all my small engines (welder, weedwhacker, ATV, etc.) but E-10 in all my frequently driven vehicles. BUT, a 2 week Prime owner now, I am starting to realize the more than 3/4 full fuel tank may remain that way for MONTHS. So, I will "burn it off", in a cost effective fashion, then refill with E-0, which we can buy here, but it (oddly enough) costs more. I didn't realize until watching this, that the car is smart enough, once it knows my departure time, to figure out when to start charging prior my driving off, very cool.

I don’t understand how cycling the ethanol containing gas is any better than letting it sit in the tank. Even if you cycle the tank with new gas, all the components are still exposed to the ethanol right? And even more so?

Should i be worried in my 2023 rav4 prime that my gas tank still has 2gal of gas when the fuel gauge reads E (a noted strange mfgr devision) so that I'll always have some amount of stale gas in the tank no matter what? I refill about once every 30-60 days. Driving it past empty to use that reserve up risks being towed or stranded. Why wouldnt Toyota design it to be accurate? Its like they dont trust their drivers.

Couldn't Toyota learn from Chevy? The Volt (2012-'19) had a BRAIN to know the gasoline was in the tank too long and would force the ICE to fire up and burn down that fuel. Volt. World's best car. Wow #2. The Volt needs no charging schedule because the batteries are heated and cooled 24/7 to maintain excellent condition. 50%? Fricken insane Toyota. Volt and Teslas have liquid cooled batteries to keep them in best shape. Sad.

Nice video! I got one question that is how about I just ran gas engine on my rav4 prime only,haven’t charge it for more than 2 years ?

I drive 10,000 miles every 6 months, so I change the oil like clockwork every 6 months. Do you think that's reasonable?

I can understand how gas gets stale but why should it get more corrosive? Gas is present whether it is just sitting in get fuel system for months or running through it as it would in a conventional ICE vehicle.

This is why I am skeptical about purchasing a hybrid vehicle. They're too new and not nearly as good in the long run. Those air filter for the prime and prius shouldve come with a feature to let the customers know when it is time to replace them due to clogging as standard especially in a hybrid vehicle. Why these manufacture don't implement them into the service maintenance just baffles me.

Thanks for your videos! I am shopping for a used Prius Prime for my wife to replace her 2007 Mazda5 (transmission just went out today at 238,XXX miles). I have ran Michelin Defenders on my commuter cars (Saturn wagon and now Pontiac Vibe) and have gotten great tread life out of them! What kind of MPG was your client getting on their Prius Prime when they switched to Defenders? Thanks!

Keeping charge to 50% will result in more frequent charging and would this not degrade battery over the years too?

Hey AMD. Can you please answer a question nobody, including Toyota can’t? Toyota says it takes 11 hours to recharge the 2023 Prime 13.6 kWh lithium-ion battery, from empty using the 120V charger that it comes with. I’m very interested in how many kwatt-hours is drawn FROM the output to take the empty 13.6 kWh lithium-ion battery to fully charged. This can be easily done using one of the kw-hr meters that plug between the 120vac outlet and the charger plug. It would make for interesting content too. What ya think?

Dear engineer, like your videos too much. As I sold mitsubishi and planning to buy Suzuki Across 2.5 Plug-in Hybrid Luxus based on same components as rav4 prime can you make short video with comparing them? Thanks in advance.

Can you put fuel stabilizer in your tank to prevent the corrosion problem?

I'm thinking about purchasing an used 2021 Prius Prime, but it apparently crashed into a utility pole early in it's life - apparently the exact spot you talked about in the vehicle: the front-passenger side.

Looking at pictures of it, I only see a dent or two, otherwise looks great, but now I'm second guessing.

I will most certainly get it looked at, but what are the odds of it being fine? Anything I should look out for?

Thanks for the suggestions! I am considering a RAV4 Prime to replace my 03 Lexus ES300 in the next few years. I am not ready for a full EV especially in the harsh Minnesota winters where range would be halved at best. On that note, I was thinking of a potential downfall of driving a PHEV in winter. The car will drive in EV mode by default until the battery falls below a certain level and then transitions to hybrid mode. If it's say 5 F outside and this transition happens when you are driving on the highway at 60-70 mph, that's not good to ask a cold engine to have to push so hard. With my Lexus, I let it warm up for a minute, shift into reverse, wait a bit, and then I don't push this car hard at all (well, I don't even in the summer but especially not in the winter) when the engine is cold. Even on the highway I accelerate slowly.

My plan if I get my RAV4 Prime is to force the car to go into hybrid mode when starting up to warm the engine (would be easier to heat the cabin as well) and only when that has happened to switch it back to EV mode. I may only get 20 miles on a 60 mile round trip commute, but it's still better than nothing.

I first watched your video about the 300K Camry engine rebuild, your video was informative and presentation very professional and honest! So I watched more. I bought the 2012 Prius Plugin when it first came out during the Toyota online preorder; I never drove a prius prior and completed my purchase when it arrived. I bought the 2018 Prime when my CA HOV decal expired and needed to buy a new car to get the HOV decal; I guess I got spoiled being able to drive in the California HOV lanes when they were free...not they charge an "arm & leg!" to drive in the express lanes. Anyways, I a network/system administrator, but always maintained my vehicles since I was 15. I'm not an expert and never had training or class related to vehicles; I learned by hands-on experience by reading and helping family and neighbors. I'm glad I watched your videos... I never bring my vehicles to the shop; so far actually never needed to; my savings I spend on tools to repair and tune my vehicle; and only use factory parts. All three of my vehicles are Toyotas, 2004 Tacoma Prerunner, 2012 Prius Plugin, and 2018 Prius Prime. All nice vehicles and very clean! I never knew about the hybrid air filter, will clean/replace if necessary. I typically got about 62MPG without charging my Prime and recently noticed it dropped to 48MPG, I started investigating, changed the air filter, checked my maintenance records, and was thinking something might be up with my exhaust system? One thing I noticed was I can hear the engine working harder, I did think it was a possible difference it the tire diameter which would change the overall drive ratio, but stayed with the factory size. It's been bugging me. But then your video mentioned about the Michelin Defenders. I have the Defenders on both plugins. They are good tires, I didn't notice any change on the plugin and they have good traction wet and dry and do last long, so I bought them for my Prime and noticed the MPG drop...that was the problem; at least now I know it's not and engine/car issue. I'll keep them for the time being and will replace them before they get to wear limit. Like I said I learn from experience! Many Thanks! I will continue to view your channel!

Isn’t ethanol in gas a great idea? Anyone who owns a snowblower or boat (or motorcycle) knows about this issue.

If a RAV 4 Hybrid developed a problem with stale gas does the stale gas have to be drained BEFORE adding fresh gas ?