Tesla, Toyota Sign Contract, Begin Developing Electric RAV4 Sport-Utility
Toyota Motor Corp. and Tesla Motors Inc., the electric-car maker, agreed to develop a battery- powered version of the RAV4 compact sport-utility vehicle that may go on sale in 2012.
Tesla built a prototype that’s undergoing testing and plans to deliver more this year, the companies said in a statement yesterday. Chief Executive Officers Akio Toyoda of Toyota and Elon Musk of Tesla announced a partnership in May that included Toyota buying a $50 million stake in the Palo Alto, California- based company and Tesla purchasing Toyota’s former joint-venture assembly plant in Fremont, California.
The arrangement lets Toyota “go in different directions at the same time,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s U.S. sales unit, said in an interview July 15. “A lot of our electric vehicle work has been in small, commuter-type cars, because that’s the direction we think most consumers will want to go. If that’s not right, we need to have alternatives in play.”
Automakers including Toyota are under pressure in the U.S. and other markets to develop models that consume little or no petroleum and emit fewer gasses linked to global warming. The project with Tesla is separate from a previously announced, two- passenger electric car Toyota plans to sell by 2012.
Tesla sells the $109,000 Roadster, an electric sports car powered by 1,000 pounds of lithium-ion battery cells. The company aims to make the $57,000 Model S electric sedan in Fremont by 2012.
Battery Pack
Tesla said July 10 it will deliver prototypes to Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, without identifying the models. While Toyota also aims to test an electric Corolla compact sedan, the RAV4 is better-suited for the weight of Tesla’s battery pack, a person familiar with the matter said last week.
The companies also may develop an electric Lexus RX luxury SUV, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the vehicles hadn’t been announced yet.
Toyota’s American depositary receipts, each representing two ordinary shares, fell $1.65, or 2.3 percent, to $70.75 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Tesla rose 75 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $20.64 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net; Bill Koenig at wkoenig@bloomberg.net
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