Toyota & Tesla Team Up on Electric Cars in Cali

Unfortunately the battery supply is going to be the limiting factor for at least five years. That has always been the problem even with the hybrid supply. The US needs to get into battery manufacturing in a big way to keep those jobs and the technology development here.

 

Toyota is on the hook for $500 million in severance payments with the closure of the Nummi plant. If this move saves them 1/3 of those payments, it's a great deal for Toyota.

 

Here's the OFFICIAL article
(okay, I admit it... you guys beat me to it)
Toyota and Tesla Motors team up to make electric cars – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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This will be a HUGE boost to Toyota. Why? Tesla has EXPERIENCE with EVs.

GM ... uh.

Nissan? I'm not sure, but I don't think they do.

 

In the Leaf forum this news got one reply, so I guess none.

My Nissan Leaf Forum - Toyota & Tesla Team Up on Electric Cars in Cali

Not really. Tesla will take a couple of years atleast ....

BTW, by mid-2011 GM will have pure BEV Volt. That might be a direct competitor.

My Nissan Leaf Forum - GM to sell pure EV version of Volt in mid 2011

 

Tesla's strength is bringing an "engineering first" approach. Something long gone from established American car makers and something that was disappearing from Toyota lately. What Toyota brings is the ability to deliver high quality components from the start. The Tesla Roadster would be much farther along (financially and time wise) if the horrible Transmission Vendor problems could have been avoided.
Hopefully that is how it plays out. Tesla gets the Model S design finished such that it can use Toyota components and Manufacturing Tooling. At that point, the 50 million investment Toyota made is chump change compared to the high volume of Model S internals sold to Tesla.

 

Local news reported Tesla and Toyota will team up to produce Tesla Model S cars at the NUMMI site, Fremont, CA. The board in So Cal, Downey, CA confirmed they are not chosen for mfg. and they're a little miffed about it.

They're talking about creating about 1,000 UAW jobs to produce the S cars. I hope it works out. btw, NUMMI used about 4,700 UAW's to produce Vibes, and Corollas and Tacomas until about end of March 2010.

Several months ago, Tesla listed quite a few open Mfg. Engineering jobs in SoCal.

 

Good Stuff. Go to this link and scroll down to the chart - it shows the Model S, the Nissan Leaf, the Aptera, the Fiesta,

Nissan Leaf Reservations Leave Tesla, Ford in the Dust

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Model (Type) Reservations Deposit Amount (Price) Launch Nissan LEAF (BEV) 6,635 in first 2.5 days, 2,700 in first 3 hours (April 2010) $99 ($32,780 standard, $33,720 premium) December 2010 Aptera 2e (BEV) and 2h (HEV) 4,000+ as of March 2009; 3,100 as of March 2010 $500 fully refundable or $750 locked in ($25K-$45K) Minimum 11 months after raising new funds; mid-2011 at the earliest Ford Fiesta (ICE) 1,000+ in first 6 days (December 2009) $0 ($13K) Summer 2010 Tesla Model S (BEV) 520 in first week (April 2009), 2,000 as of December 2009 $5K for standard version, $40K for Signature Edition ($57,400) Early 2012


Image of Tesla Model S, expected in fourth quarter of 2012.

http://animalcules.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/teslas.jpg

 

Yeah, this is great news for laid off NUMMI workers, the Bay Area and Tesla. I think the $50 million investment and partnership will lend a lot more credibility to Tesla and ease some buyers' minds.

I never saw this coming and would never have guessed.

 

Bird in the hand my friend . . .

That said, I had HOPED that dangling the Leaf out their in front of their noses would cause Toyota to come to their senses. Hopefully now they can get down to serious business ... dump the lame hydrogen money pit, and do the right thing.
SAY !!
Reading Danny's link ... Using the NUMMI plant for EV's ?!? Now THAT's good news! GM's out of there, so Toyota won't have their burdensome ways to slow them down. But doesn't that FT ev concept look like a glorified smart car? I won't be throwing the 100lb lab in the back of that lil' car ... oh ... there IS no back

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What??? Why pay the exhorbitant UAW salaries and pensions that GM in Detroit was locked into? I thought Toyota, not in Detroit, doesn't use UAW workers. And, ESPECIALLY Tesla, being brand new, would certainly not be in any type of UAW contract. (scratches head) This doesn't seem to make good business sense.

 

Naw . . . you'll probably hold out for the Volt ~ presuming that dorian grey photo is holding up.

 

The United Auto Workers union urged Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and electric car start-up Tesla Motors to hire union workers when they reopen a recently closed plant near San Francisco.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the news that Toyota and Tesla would tie up to build an electric vehicle at a Fremont, California, plant formerly operated by Toyota and General Motors [GM.UL] was "welcome news."

"Our union's hope is that this venture will give first hiring preference to former NUMMI employees who are already trained and highly skilled," Gettelfinger said in a statement.

UAW presses Toyota, Tesla to hire union workers | Reuters

 

I'm not sure why you posted this. Everyone knows my view of the Volt. Everyone knows I am on the list for a Leaf. All I said was that it would take at least two years for the Tesla/Toyota to hit car lots.

And now another article on the Tesla/Toyota partnership here, which indeed says 2012, two years from now!

 

Daniel, I believe he was making a joke about how the Volt won't be released for a very long time so one better have some special immortality secret to ever get one.

I thought it was funny...

 

Toyota Newsroom

Check it out.. there is a video there...

 

Governor Arnold said Prius is a good looking car!

 

You have six months to think of a clever license plate. Maybe something about hating gas-guzzling Priuses.

 

As has been asked a few times about what leaf buyers think.. I paid my $99 reservation for the Leaf on day 1. As for how I feel about this news? I think it is great. But doesn't affect me much because I'm in the market for an electric car NOW. This joint venture will likely take years to see any product. Not only that, but Tesla model S is too expensive for me. If they have something cheaper coming down the pipeline, that would be great.