Next-generation Toyota RAV4 EV? That's right. The forthcoming 2012 model, isn't the first RAV4 EV ever made. The RAV4 EV story actually starts 16 years ago in 1995, when Toyota introduced the first prototype, and claimed a victory, at the Scandinavian Electric Rally Car Rally.

Later that same year, Toyota, placed the RAV4 EV prototype at institutions around the state of California. The following year, in 1996, Toyota launched the first stage of…