Sweden's Teknikens Värld conducts the famous moose test that challenges vehicles to avoid a fake obstacle by steering through cones quickly while staying in a fairly narrow area. In the latest evaluation, the Toyota RAV4 Prime (known as the Plug-In Hybrid there) failed in spectacular fashion. The Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid and the Volvo XC40 Recharge T4 also didn't pass during the same round of trials.
In the video above, you can see Teknikens Värld doing several runs with the RAV4 Prime. Each time the rear end swings out and takes the crossover way too wide through the narrow course. Finally, at 39 miles per hour (63 kilometers per hour), the vehicle is able to complete the challenge successfully, but this is too slow for the publication to deem the result acceptable.
In an accompanying story about the test, Teknikens Värld said that it didn't feel like the electronic stability control was engaging to prevent the RAV4 Prime from sliding. In addition to evaluating the crossover at various speeds, the publication tried different drivers but had the same poor results.
Teknikens Värld ran into a similar handling issue when testing the regular RAV4 Hybrid in 2019. After confronting Toyota with the problem, the automaker modified the stability control, and the crossover then was successfully able to avoid the evaluation's phantom moose.
Once again, the publication has shown the results to Toyota, and the automaker has pledged to fix the problem. "As a countermeasure, we will now take steps to ensure that RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid can pass Teknikens Värld's Elk test," the company said in a statement to the publication.
It's worth noting that stability control calibrations are not necessarily identical between markets. Motor1.com has reached out to Toyota USA about whether the American RAV4 Prime's settings were the same as in Europe, and if so, whether the company has made plans to make tweaks in this region, too.
