2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime

Today, May 28, 2022, between 11:40am and 11:45am, I was making a left at an intersection when the vehicle did not respond to my pressing of the gas pedal input. It was highly dangerous and the oncoming traffic had to slow down not to hit me. The car, which usually responds very well to my pressing the gas pedal has not responded now for a 2nd time. This is the first time I am reporting because I am realizing this is not anomalous and highly concerning as it puts my family at immediate risk of getting into an accident. Please note that I have reached out to the dealer to report his issue, however, I am not sure how to proceed should this become a continued issue down the road. My vehicle is a 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime XSE model.

There is an issue with Toyota's Rav4 Prime fuel tank gauge incorrectly reading fuel left in the tank or prematurely stopping gasoline to fill the tank. My car is available for inspection upon request. No safety impact. Dealer confirmed issue by testing my car but says this is "working as intended". The fueling problem is consistent and not intermittent and started immediately after using my first tank of gas. Even when low fuel warning light is on, I am unable to fully fill the tank to the advertised 14.5 gallons. Inability to fill the fuel tank impacts the vehicle’s total available driving distance and forces me to make more frequent stops at the gas station. This issue could very well be due to the same design defect in the 2019-2021 Toyota Rav4 Hybrid class action lawsuit in which Toyota has admitted fault and settled the class action.

The RAV4 Prime's fuel system holds 14.5 gallons, however only between 10 - 11 gallons of that is usable per the digital "miles to zero" gauge on the instrument panel. When the gauge reaches "zero" and notifies the driver to fill up, the tank only fills 10 -11 gallons and keeps 3 - 4.5 gallons in reserve. This is a big issue because the "miles to zero" gauge reads the full tank when you fill it up (approximately 550 miles), but begins to swing drastically on miles left as you drive the car to accommodate for the 10 - 11 gallons that it actually uses. It is not an accurate gauge at all. There are two (2) potential fixes from Toyota for this issue: 1. Fix it so that the digital gauge reads the "miles to zero" correctly and isn't all over the place to compensate for the 4.5 gallon reserve, as the system currently uses 10 - 11 gallons as the read for "zero" instead of the 14.5 gallons . 2. Fix the gas tank to actually make the full 14.5 gallon tank usable to the driver.

Measuring from when the "low fuel" light comes on, our RAV4 Prime is only accepting 10 gallons of gasoline when refueling (car is advertised having a 14.5 gallon tank). This results in us having to fill up every 400 miles when it should be closer to 600 miles. Complained at least four times to the dealership and escalated with Toyota HQ - Toyota engineers acknowledged they have seen this trend from other RAV4 Primes out in the field, but are deeming 10 gallon fill-ups a "normal" characteristic of the car. This is bait-and-switch false advertising and an infuriating quality failure by Toyota.

The Drive to Empty estimation of remaining miles is not accurate. Regularly shows less miles than actual for HV mode. For example, after fuel fill up, the display read 508 miles DTE. I drove 38 and then it read 448. It should have said 470, thus it had a 22 mile discrepancy. 1 or 2 miles is fine, but an over 5% difference is not.

DURING ITS FIRST FUEL TANK FILL-UP (AT 909 MILES, ON 3/14/2021), NEW 2021 RAV4 PRIME SE FUEL TANK ACCEPTED LESS THAN THE EXPECTED AMOUNT OF GASOLINE. STARTING AT NEAR-EMPTY, ONLY NINE (9) GALLONS WAS ACCEPTED. AT THE SECOND FILL-UP (ON 3/22/2021), ONLY FOUR GALLONS COULD BE ADDED, AND THE FUEL NOZZLE WAS EJECTED FROM THE TANK, SPILLING GAS. SECOND ATTEMPT COULD NOT ADD ANY MORE GAS.

CAR HAS 750 MILES FROM NEW. FUEL GUAGE DISPLAY 3/4 FULL WHEN TANK IS ACTUALLY FULL.. CAUSES OVERFILLING AND LACK OF TRUST IN GUAGE READING. ALSO CAUSES CHARCOAL FILTER TO FILL WITH GAS. CAUSING IT TO FAIL. IN ADDITION CHECK ENGINE LIGHT TO DISPLAY GENERATING NUMEROUS FAULTS COMES. ALL REQUIRE IMMEDIATE DEALER ATTENTION. NO DRIVE CONDITION.