Toyota's iconic Land Cruiser and RAV4 are to become EVs

Toyota is reportedly considering reinventing both the Land Cruiser and the RAV4 as EVs, and both would potentially be made in Kentucky.

These are two of Toyota’s most iconic models, and they’re both best-sellers.

So there’s a lot riding on this.

And it also begs a question…

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Both vehicles would be built in Kentucky

Like so many other manufacturers, Toyota is carefully considering its options to minimize the impact of US tariffs, and the company is also considering scaling production in the US.

As part of this business strategy, as reported by Reuters, the manufacturer is planning to produce an electric version of both the Land Cruiser and the RAV4 in Kentucky.

Neither model has ever been sold as an EV before, even though they’re both available as hybrids in some markets.

The potential issue is that both models are icons, and both models, especially the RAV4, sell like hot cakes.

Electric cars are perfectly capable of topping sales charts – the Model Y proves it – but this is uncharted territory for Toyota.

At the time of writing, the Japanese automaker only has two EVs in its line-up, the bZ4X and bZ3.

Although, to be fair, some people would probably also include the Lexus RZ in this particular conversation, because Lexus is owned by Toyota.

What’s going on at Toyota?

If confirmed, this would be a complete 180 for a brand that’s famously been very hesitant when it comes to EVs.

So people are now wondering what’s behind this sudden change of heart.

Toyota hasn’t confirmed whether it’ll continue to sell hybrid or pure internal combustion RAV4s and Land Cruisers alongside the electric equivalents, so that’s also another question we don’t have an answer to yet.

Akio Toyoda, the company’s chairman, even went as far as to say that hybrids are actually cleaner than EVs.

So the fact that Toyota is reportedly considering turning two of its most symbolic vehicles into EVs speaks volumes.

This is still a rumor for now, but we’re probably going to find out more in the coming months.