Toyota and Tesla Motors on Friday (5 August 2011) confirmed their jointly-developed RAV4 electric vehicle will be built at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, (TMMC) in Woodstock, Ontario beginning in 2012.
“The Tesla-Toyota joint development team has agreed that building the vehicle at the Woodstock plant on the same line as the gasoline-powered RAV4, will streamline and simplify the production process and guarantee the highest level of quality control,” said TMMC chairman Ray Tanguay. “This is a great example of Toyota’s determination to collaborate with companies with leading edge technology.”
As previously announced, Toyota will pay Tesla approximately US$100m to supply the electric powertrain, which includes the battery, motor, gearbox and power electronics for the RAV4 EV. Tesla will build the electric powertrains at its production facility in Palo Alto, California and then ship them to TMMC for final assembly into the vehicle.
The RAV4 EV will be sold at US Toyota dealers through Toyota Motor Sales, USA. More details including pricing, volume and regional distribution will be announced later.
In July of last year, Tesla and Toyota Engineering and Manufacturing, America (TEMA) collaborated to convert 32 conventional gas-engine RAV4 compact SUVs into fully functional RAV4 EV prototypes.
Toyota offered a first generation RAV EV in the US in low volume.
