Tesla and Toyota…And Now A Tesla-Dailmer Partnership

Tesla may not be selling very many cars of its own these days, and after $100,000 Tesla Roadster goes out of production due to a factory upgrade in 2011, the car manufacturer won’t have a car to sell until the Model S hits markets in 2012.

But Tesla sure isn’t going anywhere. Toyota and Tesla will launch an all-electric drivetrain version of the RAV4 by 2012 and now Dailmer announced today that it plans to start producing an all-electric sedan for Europe using Tesla’s batteries.

As part of its announced, Toyota also said that it will be launching six all-new hybrid vehicles and two electric cars worldwide by 2012, to up their green fleet.

Eventually the automaker also plans on going head-to-head with General Motors’ Chevy Volt by adding a plug-in version of the Toyota Prius that will be priced $13,000 below the Volt.

That said, Toyota still doesn’t believe that electric cars will be their biggest earners anytime soon.

“We still see the electric vehicle market as a niche market with slow growth until we can begin to get the pricing down,” he said, “and of course pricing is directly related to battery cost,” Toyota spokesman John Hanson told CNN

The decision to go with an electric version of the Rav4 is slightly strange, because the weight of the SUV will hamper the range of the electric car. The car is supposed to go about 100 miles at best, which is nothing compared to the 343 miles the gasoline-powered version gets on a full tank.

An interesting choice, given that this is the first collaboration with Tesla.

Daimler, on the other hand, is expected to launch an electric version of its entry-level line called the A-Class E-Cell at the Paris Auto Show next month.

Daimler’s planned EV line-up includes the Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, A-Class E-Cell, and the F-Cell fuel cell vehicle, according to CNET. The car will have a range of over 124 miles.

Daimler, who invested in Tesla in 2009 and is a corporate partner, is entering the EV market to reach European CO2 emission standards.

“We won’t be able to meet the target of 95 grams CO2 in 2020 without electric vehicles with batteries and fuel cells,” Daimler head of research Thomas Weber told Reuters.

In the U.S., Daimler plans to offer an electric version of its mini car, the ForTwo Electric Drive, for lease starting next month.

Given Tesla diversity into the market from Toyota to Dailmer, it’s seems pretty certain that that its second quarter loss will only be a short lived reality. Elon Musk is clearly laughing at his nay-sayers

Source: Ami Cholia, AltTransportation.com