We took our second daughter to Paris for 6 months when she was 5 years old. After she grew up, we have been chasing her around the world ever since: Barcelona, Prague, Munich, London twice, Bangkok twice, Sydney 4 times, and back to Paris several times. She is a force of nature who was a VP for Adobe in charge of Far Eastern Sales and a CMO to three companies more recently. The author’s families. Paris 1975 and Sydney 2015. Fritz Hasler photos. Both of our daughters, my wife, and I try to be as green as practical and are concerned about global warming. In 2019, my wife and I purchased a Tesla Model 3. At about that time, our daughter purchased a Tesla Model X. You can see our Teslas in the garage of her vacation home in Saint George, Utah, in the photo below. Our Teslas. Saint George, Utah. January 2, 2021. Fritz Hasler photo. Our daughter retired recently and wanted a car that was environmentally friendly but wouldn’t take so much time and restrict destinations on long trips with bikes on the back. She sold her Tesla and bought a 2026 Toyota RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid. She had to search many dealers to find one. We totaled our Model 3 in an accident recently and upgraded to a base 2026 Tesla Model Y. You see our new cars in the photo below. Tesla Model Y with mountain bike. Toyota RAV4 PHEV. Three Lakes, Wisconsin. June 8 & 15 2026. Fritz Hasler photos. We routinely made cross-country trips with our Model 3 with bikes on the back. As older “retireds,” we didn’t feel that the extra time charging and more frequent stops with our Model 3 were a problem, so our replacement was a similar Tesla Model Y. However, our daughter wanted to take longer trips to more remote areas with bikes on the back and opted for a plug-in hybrid. Her RAV4 has a range of over 500 miles combined electric and gas. Her fill-ups with gas almost anywhere in the country will take only 5 minutes. However, many of her miles will be local and she religiously plug into her L2 charger whenever she comes home. Even though her car has a relatively small battery, it has level 2 charging, so it only takes a couple of hours to fill it up again. Her PHEV has an electric range of 52 miles. She has moved to our little town of Three Lakes in Northern Wisconsin where local trips are usually under 50 miles. If she runs errands in the morning, she can top off her battery again in two hours and is ready to make another run or even two on electricity later in the day. One of the raps against PHEVs is that owners, and particularly renters who don’t have a place at home to charge, don’t bother to charge them, so they end up running entirely on gas. After driving a BEV for 6+ years, my daughter is accustomed to plugging in every time she returns home and continues to do so with her PHEV. Toyota RAV4 Plugin Hybrid Base Model Specs Price: $44,815 Warranty: 60 months/60,000 miles 52 miles of all-electric range 38 mpg combined rating with gas engine in play 15-gal tank x 38 mpg = 570 miles gas range 2,500 lb. maximum trailering capacity 37.5 cubic feet behind the rear seats 302 combined gas and electric HP Tesla Model Y Base Model Specs Price: $39,999 EPA range: 321 miles Warranty: 48 months/50,000 miles Drivetrain and battery warranty: 8 years/120,000 miles 1,500 lb maximum trailering capacity 30.5 cubic feet behind rear seats 299 HP The two cars are similar in many ways. However, the RAV4 will be more convenient on long trips and will be able to travel to remote areas. The Model Y, if you have your own garage, can start every morning with a full charge and with no oil changes, and local driving is more convenient. Teslas have no problem finding chargers anywhere on the US Interstate system and along other major highways. However, traveling in remote areas with a Tesla can be a challenge. The Tesla’s 299 HP is instantaneously available at any RPM and is smooth as silk. For high mileage, the simpler electric drivetrain will mean much lower maintenance costs What about driving automation 2026 Tesla Model Y with FSD V14? We are blown away by the performance of Full Self Driving V14 on our 2026 Model Y. Our Model 3 was outstanding with V12, but V14 raises driving automation to a new level. After my accident in which I overrode FSD V12 on my Model 3, I am willing to allow V14 to take a little longer at stop signs but otherwise drive me at any rate I choose — between Sloth, Chill, Standard, Hurry, and Mad Max. Hurry is a little faster than any safety-conscious person intending to avoid speeding tickets would choose to drive. The car drives with precision and almost never makes a decision that I choose to override. It rarely makes a navigation mistake, and if it does, it still finds its way, if you let it. I don’t have the opportunity for it to make lane selection errors here in Northern Wisconsin, but I understand they still occur, if only rarely, in more urban areas. For the first time, Tesla’s automation handles the beginning and end of a trip. It always backs out of my garage just far enough to clear my tree-lined, unpaved driveway perfectly. It will also automatically (when needed) back into a parking place at a big box store. I hate parking and backing in because I am never sure exactly how much clearance I have and how far to drive into a parking place. FSD V14 handles this automatically perfectly every time. On the road, FSD V14 handles every situation automatically perfectly at the correct speed and with precision, no matter whether there are lines on the road or not, and no matter how tight the turn. The end of the trip is more difficult than the beginning. It won’t park in your garage yet and will often park in a place at a big box store where you need to walk farther than you would if you were parking yourself. What about driving automation on the 2026 Toyota RAV4 PHEV? I haven’t driven my daughter’s RAV4, but from her reports, the automation performs like the rental Toyota Corolla that I drove when my Model 3 was totaled. The smart cruise works like most. It matches speed with a slower moving car in front of you. It will stop at a light or stop sign, but only if there is a car in front of you. Also, you have to tell it to go when the light turns green. The steering assist works great, but only if you are on the open road like an Interstate highway with gentle turns. On any roads with sharper turns, it is very lame, always breaking loose. It’s very confusing and not worth the trouble of trying to reengage on every straighter stretch. I’ve always felt that PHEVs are like kissing your sister. You get some of the advantages of a BEV, but still keep all the bad baggage of a gas car. You have oil changes, smelly fuel, and higher maintenance costs if you keep your car over 200,000 miles, etc. We are both happy with our new cars: Different strokes for different folks If you find any of my articles helpful to you, please use my referral link when buying a new Tesla: https://ts.la/arthur73734 (be sure to use it when you make your order). Tesla keeps changing the program but here’s the latest: If you are buying a new Tesla Model 3 or Y and use my link, you will get 2 months of free Full Self Driving (a ~$200 value) on top of the one month that comes free with every new Tesla. For a Cybertruck, you will get $1,000 off your purchase price.