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226 Toyota RAV4 Primes held TLC licenses on October 12, 2026: 223 for-hire vehicles (FHVs) and 3 yellow taxis. Every one is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), a car you can charge from the grid that also has a gas engine.
That makes the RAV4 Prime the plug-in hybrid of the TLC fleet. Its 223 FHVs are 46.7% of all 478 plug-in hybrid FHVs, and its 3 taxis are the only plug-in hybrids among 10,236 medallion taxis.
How the RAV4 Prime is counted
TLC publishes active FHVs and medallion taxis by VIN only. TLC Help decoded the VINs with NHTSA's vPIC decoder, which reports the plug-in RAV4 as its own model. The regular gas and hybrid Toyota RAV4, with 13,377 TLC vehicles, has its own page. These counts are one day's snapshot.
Model years: 2023 at the top
The plug-in RAV4 arrived for model year 2021 in the EPA's listings, and TLC numbers start there: 36 cars from 2021, 46 from 2022 and 81 from 2023. Then they drop to 17 for 2024 and 15 for 2025, before rising to 31 for 2026. Model year 2023 alone is 35.8% of TLC RAV4 Primes. In TLC's model-year data, 2023 is also the biggest year for the whole FHV fleet, at 19.4%, so the Prime follows the same pattern, only more strongly.
The EPA called it "RAV4 Prime 4WD" through 2024 and "RAV4 PHEV AWD" for 2025. When we checked on October 12, 2026, fueleconomy.gov did not yet list a 2026 plug-in RAV4, so we can't give ratings for those 31 cars.
None is older than 2021. For FHVs, TLC's current rules have no fixed retirement age; the car must pass three inspections a year (rule 59A-26(a), chapter 59). See TLC vehicle retirement age and TLC vehicle inspection.
Electric range and gas mileage
Sources: EPA labels for the 2021 RAV4 Prime and 2025 RAV4 PHEV.
What this means for a TLC driver: the first 42 or so miles after a full charge can run on electricity (by the EPA test), then the car drives like a hybrid. A full shift is usually longer than that, so your savings depend on how often you can charge, and on what you pay for power. Compare scenarios in the EV savings tool and read EV vs hybrid for Uber in NYC.
Black car bases and three taxis
219 (96.9%) are at black car bases, where app trips run. 3 are at livery bases and 1 at a luxury limousine base. Two FHVs are marked "PILOT" in TLC's wheelchair_accessible column, which the dataset does not define; none is marked WAV.
The 3 yellow taxis are model years 2021 and 2022. TLC's hack-up page says that since October 18, 2024 every hack-up must be an accessible vehicle, even on a non-accessible medallion. So when these taxis reach retirement, they cannot be replaced with another RAV4 Prime. Retirement timing is explained in TLC vehicle retirement age.
Plates for an FHV
New FHV licenses are only for approved wheelchair accessible vehicles (TLC). To use a RAV4 Prime, move an existing non-WAV-restricted license onto it within 15 days of DMV registration and pass inspection (rule 59A-09(a)). See TLC plates for FHVs.
The next-largest plug-in group is the Lincoln Corsair, with 34. See also the Mitsubishi Outlander, Kia Sorento and TLC fleet by make and model.
More in the vehicles topic.
Data on this page
Aggregates of public data. They describe trips and vehicles, never individual people.
TLC's vehicle lists have no make/model column, so TLC Help decoded the VIN of every licensed vehicle with NHTSA's vPIC decoder (one representative VIN per manufacturer + model-descriptor + model-year pattern) and published only counts. 5 of 115,081 vehicles (0%) could not be decoded to a model and are left out. vPIC sometimes reports trim-family names (e.g. 'RX' not 'RX 350h'); powertrain comes from vPIC's electrification/fuel fields and may misclassify a few model years. Snapshot lists change daily.
- Toyota RAV4 Prime (PHEV): licensed TLC vehicles by model year — Active FHVs and authorized medallion taxis that are a Toyota RAV4 Prime (PHEV), by model year.NYC Open Data: FHV - Active (8wbx-tsch) and Medallion Vehicles - Authorized (rhe8-mgbb), VINs decoded with NHTSA vPIC · pulled Oct 12, 2026Model year from TLC's vehicle_year / model_year columns. Age limits for TLC vehicles come from TLC rules, not this chart.
- Toyota RAV4 Prime (PHEV) in the TLC fleet: hybrid, electric or gas — Licensed Toyota RAV4 Prime (PHEV) vehicles by powertrain (from decoded VINs).NYC Open Data: FHV - Active (8wbx-tsch) and Medallion Vehicles - Authorized (rhe8-mgbb), VINs decoded with NHTSA vPIC · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Toyota RAV4 Prime (PHEV): where it is licensed (FHV base type vs medallion taxi) — Licensed Toyota RAV4 Prime (PHEV) vehicles by fleet: FHVs by the type of base they are affiliated with, and medallion taxis.NYC Open Data: FHV - Active (8wbx-tsch) and Medallion Vehicles - Authorized (rhe8-mgbb), VINs decoded with NHTSA vPIC · pulled Oct 12, 2026Wheelchair-accessible (FHV list): 0 WAV, 2 PILOT. App-based (high-volume) work generally runs through black car bases.
Frequently asked questions
How many Toyota RAV4 Primes are licensed by the TLC?
226 on October 12, 2026: 223 for-hire vehicles and 3 yellow taxis, or 0.2% of TLC vehicles. TLC Help counted them by decoding VINs with NHTSA's vPIC decoder, which reports this plug-in version separately from the regular RAV4.
How far does a RAV4 Prime go on electricity?
The EPA rates the 2021 RAV4 Prime and the 2025 RAV4 PHEV AWD at 42 miles of electric range, 94 MPGe on electricity and 38 mpg combined when running on gas.
Can a RAV4 Prime be a yellow taxi?
Three are yellow taxis today, model years 2021 and 2022. But TLC says that since October 18, 2024 every new hack-up must be a wheelchair accessible vehicle, so a RAV4 Prime cannot be hacked up as a new taxi.
Is the RAV4 Prime the same as the RAV4 Hybrid?
No. The RAV4 Prime is a plug-in hybrid you can charge from the grid. The regular RAV4 Hybrid cannot be plugged in. The EPA renamed the plug-in version 'RAV4 PHEV' for model year 2025.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- NYC Open Data: For Hire Vehicles (FHV) – Active (8wbx-tsch) data.cityofnewyork.us
- NYC Open Data: Medallion Vehicles – Authorized (rhe8-mgbb) data.cityofnewyork.us
- NHTSA vPIC VIN decoder API vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov
- fueleconomy.gov: 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime 4WD fueleconomy.gov
- fueleconomy.gov: 2025 Toyota RAV4 PHEV AWD fueleconomy.gov
- fueleconomy.gov: Find a Car (model listings by year) fueleconomy.gov
- TLC: Yellow Cab Hack-Up (approved vehicles) nyc.gov
- TLC: Get a For-Hire Vehicle License nyc.gov
- TLC Rule Book Chapter 59 (For-Hire Vehicles) nyc.gov
Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll check it against the official source.
TLC Help is not a law firm and is not affiliated with the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission or OATH. Explanations on this site are general information, not legal advice. Legal representation is provided by independent attorneys and OATH-registered representatives in our network.