It all means that whether you’re reacquainting yourself with a RAV4 or trying one for the first time, a rather different experience could well await.

Hybrid power offers a fresh dimension to ownership of Toyota’s RAV4 soft roading compact SUV. Through this car, the brand offers buyers in this segment the most affordable route into frugal petrol electric power with its greater refinement and clean emission tax benefits. Plus the improved fourth generation design delivers smarter styling, greater safety provision and extra media connectivity. It’s worth a look.

And on the move? Well major changes have been made to the RAV4 engine line-up. Diesel drivers now get one single choice – a BMW-engineered 2. 0-litre 141bhp unit, solely available with manual transmission and 2WD. Even more significantly, there’s also now the option of petrol/electric Hybrid power, a 195bhp set-up available with either 2WD or AWD. In both cases, a 2. 5-litre petrol engine is mated with a 141bhp electric motor at the front, but if you go for the ‘E-Four’ version, then a second 68bhp motor is also added to additionally power the rear axle too.

It’s the Hybrid variant that Toyota expects at least half of all future RAV4 drivers to choose – despite the fact that the brand hasn’t mated this powerplant with the more advanced Plug-in technology that some rivals use. The Japanese brand declines to copy that approach here, doubting that many potential buyers will want to pay the significant premium that accompanies Plug-in progress. They could be right: it is certainly a more affordable way of buying into the impressive returns possible using petrol electric propulsion. In the case of the 4WD model, you’re looking at 55. 4mpg on the combined cycle and 118g/km of CO2. Don’t expect too much in terms of off road ability though, Toyota has retained an AWD-only conventionally petrol-engined 2. 0-litre V-matic model in the range for customers wanting a bit more of that. This variant comes with 149bhp and standard auto transmission.

There’s nothing quite like hybrid power, especially in terms of the Rolls Royce style of general refinement and the eerie silence you get at start-up. In the RAV4, we’re talking of a 195bhp set-up that’s available with either 2WD or, AWD. In both cases, a 2. 5-litre petrol engine is mated with a 141bhp electric motor at the front, but if you go for the ‘E-Four’ version, then a second 68bhp motor is also added to additionally power the rear axle too.

It’s the Hybrid variant that Toyota expects at least half of all future RAV4 buyers to choose – despite the fact that the brand hasn’t mated this powerplant with the more advanced Plug-in technology that some rivals use. This Japanese brand declines to copy that approach here, doubting that many potential buyers will want to pay the significant premium that accompanies Plug-in progress. They could be right, it is certainly a more affordable way of buying into the impressive returns possible using petrol electric propulsion. In the case of the 4WD model, you’re looking at 55. 4mpg on the combined cycle and 118g/km of CO2.

The most notable changes have taken place up-front, where a smarter slender upper grille is flanked by re-styled headlights featuring LED technology on plusher versions.

Toyota promises an improvement in quality this time round, re-styling the instrument binnacle, the centre console and the gear lever surround and adding in higher quality materials, all in an effort to try to push this car up-market. As before, the driver-centric section is framed by the silver-finished hoop that rises from the transmission tunnel and cuts through the dashboard beams to frame instrumentation now delivered by two separate circular dials. The lefthand one will be either a rev counter or a Hybrid system indicator, it all depends on the engine you’ve chosen up-front. Between these gauges, Toyota has added in a 4. 2-inch multi-information display to the improved model, this showing you safety information, trip computer data, a compass and audio settings.

Anything this screen can’t tell you will probably be covered by the 7-inch centre dash infotainment monitor the fascia has been re-designed to better accommodate.

And in the rear? Well if your experience of RAV4 motoring is limited to older MK1, MK2 or MK3 versions of this car, make sure you take a seat here to experience the differences because they really are significant. The redesign that created the original version of this MK4 model in 2012 added an extra 100mm to the wheelbase of the car and pretty much all of it has been used to benefit back seat occupants who get plenty of kneeroom and class-leading standards of space.

Finally, let’s take a look out back. You get 547-litres in a conventionally-engined petrol or diesel RAV4 – or 501-litres with this Hybrid variant.

Though opinion may be divided as to whether the RAV4 invented the soft roading segment, few people doubt that, more than any other, this model defined it. In some ways, it continues to do just that, for this car still sums up a lot of what a vehicle of this kind should be all about. Smart, reasonably spacious, affordable to run and with just enough SUV-ness about it to get you to the places you tend to dream about but will probably never go.

Once upon a time, the RAV4 was the kind of car we might call a ‘Crossover’ today, with SUV looks unexpectedly matched to a young, sporty demeanour. The RAV4, like its original users, has grown up, matured and become more sensible. And what could be more sensible than the installation of a hybrid engine under the bonnet?

Perhaps then this is, as Toyota assures us, ‘a better way’ of owning a model of this kind - you decide. One thing’s for certain, for many, this car’s buying proposition will make family-friendly, real world sense.