Having cleared up the misunderstanding on whether or not the pure-electric RAV4 will be sold to the general public (it will), Toyota and partner Tesla Motors confirmed today that their jointly developed EV SUV will be built at the Japanese company’s Canadian manufacturing plant in Woodstock, Ontario starting from 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 Ray Tanguay, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) Chairman.
Toyota previously revealed that it will pay Tesla Motors around $100 million to supply the electric powertrain, which includes the battery, motor, gear box and power electronics for the RAV4 EV.
The maker of the Tesla Roadster will manufacture the components of the electric powertrain at its production facility in Palo Alto, California and then ship them to Canada for final assembly into the RAV4 EV.
Toyota said that the RAV4 EV will be sold through its U.S. dealerships with information on the precise launch date and pricing to be announced at "a later time".
3 Comments:
"Powered by Tesla", huhhh?
Hooray! Us Canadians get to do even more of the manual labour, now that we are getting this, the XTS and probably the eAssist thing due to the fact the Regal is build in Canada. You know if there is one thing about us Canadians, it's we find manual labour stimulating. And our workers are willing to screw up the build quality on the XTS so all the rich morons who buy it won't get their money's worth, so GM can stop laying off people. It all makes perfect sense.
On the subject of the RAV4 EV though, Can someone tell me what happened to the rear spare tire? It doesn't make sense that they put it inside considering the fact they would need to put the batteries in the trunk.
What spare tire? I'm thinking they will eliminate it like Chevy did with the Cruze Eco. Dumb idea, if you ask me. The spare tire has saved me numerous times.
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