Toyota’s electric RAV4

Toyota’s electric RAV4

There’s an electric connection between Toyota and Tesla. The world’s largest carmaker bought £32.6 million of shares in the Californian electric car firm on July 2nd.

And while Tesla quickly used the deal to bolster its Model S battery powered four-door coupe project by purchasing part of the closed Toyota NUMMI factory in California, details of the Japanese firm’s side of the deal have just emerged.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that it will build and develop two electric car prototypes “with a range and acceleration exceeding that of other announced electric vehicles of this class.”

The cars have not been revealed, but insiders say that the Toyota RAV4 and Lexus RX will be the most suitable for conversion as they will be able to cope with the weight of Tesla’s lithium ion battery pack.

The target for the finished Toyota Tesla joint venture vehicle is for a car that costs around £26,000 in the US with a range of 150 miles on a single charge. The car could also be built in the NUMMI plant. Tesla’s initial plans are to build 20,000 cars per year there, but this could be expanded as the plant can produce 6,000 cars per week.

The electric project is separate to Toyota’s own EV supermini project which will launch in the US in 2012. That car uses batteries developed by a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic. Tesla is unlikely to contribute to any small car electrification programme with Toyota as it already has a deal to provide its batteries to Smart to power its electric ForTwo.

Source: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/