Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

UPDATED:

BREAKING: Governator says Tesla teaming up with Toyota in Cali

California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger has apparently let slip ahead of a scheduled 5pm Pacific announcement that Tesla Motors will be teaming up with Toyota to build electric cars.

While some might speculate that the agreement could result in the re-opening of Fremont's idle New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant (NUMMI), SFGate says that this is somewhat unlikely. Any production agreement will likely involve the forthcoming Model S sedan, and NUMMI's facilities are significantly larger than what the model will require, as it was originally scaled to accommodate the joint venture between Toyota and General Motors which required much greater capacity. The smart money is on a new factory location, probably in Downey, CA (in Los Angeles County).

It is not yet clear what Toyota will bring to the table or what, if any money or stock is changing hands with this rumored agreement. Also, no word yet on how Mercedes-Benz feels about all this – the German automaker already has a 10 percent stake in the company after opening its coffers to the struggling EV manufacturer back in May of 2009.

More information as it becomes available...

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/20/b...oyota-in-cali/

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Toyota and Tesla to partner on EV production in California

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda held a joint press in Palo Alto, California to announce that the two companies would be collaborating on electric vehicle development and production, with Tesla will taking over the recently closed NUMMI factory in Fremont, CA to produce the Model S sedan.

Toyota will invest $50 million for a private placement of Tesla common stock and the state of California will provide a sales tax abatement to Tesla for capital equipment expenditures to tool up the plant. Musk estimated that the abatement will amount to about $20 million over the next several years.

According to Musk, production of the Model S will bring about 1,000 employees back to the NUMMI plant to produce about 20,000 cars a year at first, and as the facility expands – possibly to include the production of more models – it could employ up to 10,000 workers. Musk revealed that some employees have already been rehired, but was non-committal on the subject of union representation. NUMMI was the only Toyota plant in North America that was unionized.

An additional benefit to Tesla from this deal is that it will be able to take advantage of the Toyota production system and possibly some of Toyota's suppliers. That's sure to help Tesla avoid many of the logistical problems that hampered early Roadster production and costs.

Production of the Model S is still planned to start in 2012 and Musk said more advanced prototypes would be revealed later this year. No decisions have been made yet about additional vehicles to be produced at the plant which previously had a capacity of more than 300,000 vehicles a year.

The deal for the NUMMI plant leaves Downey, CA jilted at the altar with the city's mayor "feeling stabbed in the back by Tesla." The Toyota deal apparently came together very quickly and Musk acknowledged that he would still like to work with Downey, perhaps for a future Space-X facility.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/20/b...ion-in-califo/

gengar

Not sure why Toyota would bother with this....

(Cj)

I wonder if any technology will be shared. It'd be nice if there was an EV version of the next GS, similar to the model S.

Maybe Tesla will start using Toyota platforms instead of Lotus ones?

encore888

Bring that Tesla styling to Lexus!

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

And Lotus uses Toyota engines. Everyone wants a piece of Toyota

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Well, the sedan (Model S) seats 7, so they would need a platform that goes beyond what Lotus has to offer.

(Cj)

Platform sharing could be a good thing, especially in this day and age. Maybe Toyota's next gen EV technology will be joint developed with Tesla and utilized by both companies.

Lots of potential in a partnership here.

And yeah it is ironic that Lotus uses Toyota engines and Tesla uses Lotus platforms currently. It's kinda like a love triangle

jruhi4

There's a live feed linked from the Toyota USA Pressroom ( http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/m...nt-159045.aspx ). The Detroit News contradicts the earlier Autoblog account and says that the NUMMI plant is involved ( http://detnews.com/article/20100520/...plant-in-Calif. )

Gotta run. the Press Conference starts in less than 10 minutes.

(Cj)

Just read a story about this in NYTimes and it looks like they will be codeveloping electric cars. As jruhi4 just said Tesla will be using part of the NUMMI plant. It all sounds like good news and one last tidbit. They said Toyota would buy $50 million worth in Tesla stock in the deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/bu...html?src=busln

LexFather

This is just HUGE HUGE news and really solidifies Telsa. It also allows Toyota to have its hands in hybrids, EV and hydrogen.

I think Toyota is interested more in EVs after seeing the initial interest in the Nissan Leaf. While Nissan is all EV, Honda is going with Hydrogen, Toyota will be in all 3 so they are less susceptible to huge market changes.

Glad to see 1,000 workers getting hired here. Good luck!

geko29

I'm pretty sure the Model S is going to be my next car, so this is awesome news.

(Cj)

I'm with you. It's definitely up there for me. It's coming out the same time as the next gen GS so depending on what the next GS looks like and the specs it'll be a tossup between the two. Also the XF is still high on my list lol!

IS-SV

Good stuff and better use of the facility (being in the high tech capital of the world) than before. Although they were secretive about this decision, I had a couple of hints that it was in the works.

GM is out of the picture regarding the facility. Mercedes and Toyota have ownership positions in Tesla, good signs.

LexFather

I am also a huge fan of the model S......lets hope it delivers!

jruhi4

My random thoughts, take and commentary on the Toyota/Tesla hookup appear in an article on the Kaizen Factor blog that Ryan (Flipside909) and I have put together: http://kaizenfactor.wordpress.com/20...otatesla-ties/