Toyota drops 'Prime' name for 'Plug-in Hybrid' instead

It may have worked with top-quality beef, on Amazon and even with a former NFL superstar now coaching college football, but Toyota says it will be pulling the plug on the "Prime" nomenclature that has delineated its plug-in hybrid vehicles from standard ones.

Beginning with the 2025 model year this fall, the RAV4 Prime will be called the RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle, the automaker said Sept. 26.

The switch comes five years after the popular plug-in crossover debuted, and nine years after Toyota introduced the "Prime" designation on the plug-in hybrid version of the 2016 Prius.

A Toyota spokesperson confirmed that the Prime designation eventually will be phased out on the Prius in favor of the more descriptive Prius Plug-in Hybrid, bringing the two Toyota nameplates in line with the way the Japanese automaker describes the same technology in its Lexus NX, RX and TX PHEVs.

In addition to the naming change, the Toyota logo on the front and rear of the vehicle will no longer have a blue "halo," the automaker said.

The Prime had represented a small fraction of overall RAV4 volume, getting outsold 6-to-1 by the RAV4 hybrid and nearly 7-to-1 by the gasoline version. Through August, RAV4 Prime sales in the U.S. were up 42 percent this year to 22,499, while total RAV4 sales — including the hybrid and plug-in versions — were up 21 percent to 319,035.