Toyota RAV4 Hybrid now top selling car in Australia

@Tweaksta the CVT just revs higher when the battery needs charged. The battery will only go down to about 20%. You'll only use ALL the battery if you run out of gas. This is normal for hybrids and has been since the beginning. Different story with non-cvt hybrids though.
 
It won't get you across the Simpson though. Those dunes are very soft and require a lot of power. It may not even be able to get up Big Red (the first dune).

A CVT can't rev higher when you are already on the redline which many of these dunes require.

40kw shared by the rears isn't really a usable front/rear torque split either. My 20 year old Forester has around 50kw per wheel with a 50/50 split.

Believe me, the tech is improving but it's still not quite good enough.
 
@Tweaksta This is for the Prime, but it's no different in terms of the battery discharging. These batteries last a LOT longer if they're never discharged all the way. The car is programmed to not let you down the batteries to zero. Older battery tech(like mine) keeps hybrids between 40-65% charge because a 100% charge isn't good for the battery either. Toyota hasn't published the numbers, but my guess is that it stays between 15 and 90% now.
2020 Prius Prime: The Hybrid You Can Charge | Oak Lawn Toyota
 
@Tweaksta if the dunes are that hard, you're simply not going to move like a CVT in a Subie. You'll just perpetually charge your battery until you run out of gas. So long as the engine is running, you'll be charging the battery. Redline produces far more energy than the motor can even push at a given time. This isn't going to be a problem. The lousy traction control, or running out of fuel in the hybrid is going to get you stuck, not the lack of charge.
 
Ok but.....

I'm saying that certain conditions will deplete the batteries to a point that the car will refuse to engage the rear wheels. Whether that is due to the car disengaging the rears to maintain your quoted 40-65% charge to stop the batteries from damaging or whether the car finds no conditions suitable for regeneration for 4 days.

In many locations in this country (and I'm sure yours too) the car will have trouble providing constant power at the rear wheels for the amounts of time required to get you out the other side.

There is no argument here.
 
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