First Toyota invested $60 million in Tesla, then they upped it to $100 million. Now Elon Musk is telling reporters that his company is in talks with Toyota to finalize a $1 billion deal. A billion dollar deal would equal 40% of Telsa's current market cap. Could an acquisition be coming?

This week Danny and Russell are joined by Tony Schaefer and Jason Holder. The group take apart the new Fisker Karma commercial and wonder why the Karma itself actually is, discuss Plug-In America's Paul Scott take a job at Santa Monica Nissan to sell Leafs, Volt transparency, the new liquid cooled Lion battery for the Ford Focus EV, a HUGE rebate on the Tesla Roadster in Japan and two eerily similar Toyota hybrids NOT meant for the US. At least for now.

Hosts: Russell Frost and Danny Cooper

Panelists: Tony Schaefer, Jason Holder

On a day when the overall market was down and the Dow dipped below 10,000 points, Tesla's initial stock price of $17.00 shot up 41% to $23.89 by the close of trading. There were many concerns over Tesla's IPO due to the company never turning a profit and founder Elon Musk's proclamation that he's "broke" due to his investment in the company.

With the first US automotive IPO in 50 years, Tesla has priced over 13,300,000 shares of its common stock at $17 per share. What are your predictions for the stock?

This week's episode is up early!

What Drives Us #21 for June 25, 2010

Hosts Danny Cooper and Russell Frost are joined by Tony Schaefer and Linda Weidemann as and take on a wide range of topics. Look for news about Tesla (IPO and new vehicles), the Hyundai Veloster, the Honda CR-Z and much more.

Hosts: Russell Frost and Danny Cooper

Panelists: Tony Schaefer and Linda Weidemann

Episode #: 21

Time: 56:14

What Drives Us #20 for June 11, 2010 (or thereabouts)

Hosts Danny Cooper and Russell Frost are joined by Evan Fusco as and discuss a wide range of topics. Did I say discuss? Disagree and argue and discuss might be more to the point. All of which creates a very interesting show covering topics such as Alan Mulally and Jason Calacanis at D8 and when we'll all get EV's, CARB, Fuel cell vehicles, Why Baker California might be the next roadside metropolis and much more.

Hosts Danny Cooper and Russell Frost are joined by Tony Scheafer and Linda Weidemann to discuss the Toyota Tesla partnership and they dissect Motor Trend published purported leaked images of the "Prius Alpha".

Hosts: Russell Frost and Danny Cooper

Panelists: Tony Schaefer, Linda Weidemann

Episode #: 18

Time: 1:10:28

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Just when Toyota looked like it was beginning to be beaten at its own alt-fuel game by the likes of Nissan and GM, they make a daring move by partnering with Tesla Motors to develop future Electric Vehicles. With an investment of $50 million and the sale of the NUMMI production facility to Tesla, Toyota is in exchange getting a partner with a start-up spirit and a much-needed fast track to electric vehicles.

This morning I received word from Tesla that they would be having an announcement this evening, and while details are a little sketchy right now and things differ depending on who you ask, it looks like Tesla and Toyota are teaming up to produce an electric car. According to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the partnership between Tesla and Toyota will take a Toyota model and electrify it.

This week's episode of "What Drives Us" is up a day early since we talked about some timely events. For those of you who are new to the podcast, "What Drives Us" is a podcast about alternative fuel and future technology modes of transportation. While focusing on the Prius, we do discuss other topics including this week's big discussion on Tesla.

This week Russell and I were joined by Evan Fusco (efusco as he's known on PriusChat). Thanks to Evan for taking the time out to join us!