Man got himself a 25-year-old first-generation Toyota RAV4 EV made in response to a California mandate and is overjoyed with it

A guy who bought himself a 25-year-old first-generation Toyota RAV4 EV absolutely adores it and was genuinely impressed with how smooth the driving experience was.

The RAV4 EV was way ahead of its time as Toyota was a surprising early adopter of EVs.

Toyota introduced this particular make following a specific mandate in California in the 2000s.

Despite loving the RAV4 EV, the car’s existence presents the owner with a bittersweet feeling about the huge potential that this car held and all of the lost time that was wasted on not developing EVs further after a boost in the early aughts.

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The Toyota RAV4 EV is older than you think

Kyle from Out of Spec Reviews was excited to drive his 25-year-old RAV4 EV on the roads for the first time in many years.

While certainly nowhere near the oldest EV to exist, the RAV4 was an example of Toyota’s early adoption of EVs, as far back as the late 1990s/early 2000s.

Kyle described it as potentially a ‘a game-changer if Toyota had continued with EVs,’ and particularly noted how smooth the drive was for a car of its age.

The original battery had an estimated 100-mile range, and the interior of the car was simple but functional with some retro early digital displays.

Kyle had to change the battery and do some repairs before the car was road-legal again, but he was over the moon when it finally was.

It’s all because of a 25-year-old Californian mandate

In 1990, the California Air Resources Board – AKA the deliciously named CARB – introduced a mandate requiring major automakers’ car output to be a minimum of two percent zero-emission vehicles.

In response to this, Toyota made the RAV4 EV, along with GM, Ford, Honda, and Chrysler following with their own early EVs.

After this, Toyota pivoted towards hybrid vehicles, like many companies did as a loophole, because building an EV at the time was super expensive.

It’s a shame that EVs only really recently came back into fashion with the likes of Tesla and as Kyle said: “Imagine if Toyota had stuck with EVs instead of waiting 20 years to release the bZ4X.”