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California = Tesla + Toyota

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Great Decision!

This is such a cool decision! :biggrin:

Key points, in my view:

1. Room to expand very, very cheaply after the initial outlay. Imagine the inevitable costs and delays (together with cost overruns) caused by the need to continually upgrade and expand any facility in Downey. The NUMMI complex is HUGE and modern and demand will grow very rapidly once people realize that for the price of a BMW you can terrify Ferrari Testarosa owners with a projected Model S 0-60 mph metric of just 5.6 seconds, barely slower than those overrated and overpriced Italian dinosaurs, and

2. Profound geographical and logistical benefits offered by a very short commute for the Palo Alto engineers to Fremont for the numerous troubleshooting trips that invariably must occur when managing any complex, dynamic engineering project. Beats the heck out of repeated commutes to incredibly smoggy Downey, California.... over a period of 5 years, those commutes would inevitably wear upon even the most robust of engineers.
 
$50 Million for the worlds largest car maker is chump change. This could very well be a PR moveto look good or as TEG says just them throwing a wrench in the works for anyone shopping for an EV.
For them, $50M is better spent this way than a minor blip of an ad campaign saying the the Prius "does not have to plug in".
 
This article
http://www.contracostatimes.com/nummi

Has this tidbit:



The cars

Chevrolet Nova, 1984-'88.
471,147 made
Toyota Corolla FX16, 1986-'88.
98,878 made
Toyota Corolla sedan, 1988-2010.
3,000,935 made, through '09
Geo/Chevrolet Prizm, 1988-2001.
Geo nameplate dropped in '98.
998,580 made
Toyota Hilux compact truck, 1991-1994.
329,657 made
Toyota Tacoma, 1995-2010.
The redesigned, renamed Hilux.
2,454,336 made, through '09
Pontiac Vibe, 2002-'09.
463,400 made
Toyota Voltz, 2002-'04.
Right-hand-drive export to Japan.
10,059 made
Total production through 2009: 7.8 million vehicles
 
Finally

Finally...Now Tesla will be able to ramp up production of the VERY marketable Model S after a little retrofitting of the existing factory floorspace to allow for MASS production of form-fitted carbon fiber bodies and panels.

This should all help to REALLY get the ball rolling.
 
As far as I understand, Tesla bought the whole factory part of NUMMI, even though only a small part of it is necessary for Model S production. And even though we don't seem to know how much Tesla actually pays for NUMMI, it seems to express a strong confidence not only from Toyota, but also from Tesla itself into its own future. Actually, to me, this expression of thinking (and acting) big, is the most important news here.
 
$50 Million for the worlds largest car maker is chump change.

Yes, that is nominal, and probably not that important from Tesla's point of view. Toyota is just putting in a nominal stake; maybe they'll get a seat on the board or something. What's important (and exciting!):

1. They can convert part of the NUMMI plant over to make the Model S, rather than starting completely from scratch in an empty building with no equipment. All that machinery must still be sitting there, just waiting to be reconfigured. That's gotta be HUGE for rolling out the Model S.

2. No doubt they got a "really good deal" for the plant. I expect we'll see more about that in their next filing.

3. There is talk of a future $30k Toyota model with a Tesla drivetrain. Good cash cow, and it puts EVs in the everyman price range - a stated goal of Tesla.

4. A vote of confidence from the world's largest automaker ought to juice the IPO.

5. They can benefit and learn from Toyota's manufacturing expertise.

6. They have a lot of room to grow in the future.

I'm about to take delivery on a Roadster, but now this has got me thinking more seriously about putting in for a Model S. Sounds like it's really gonna happen.
 
I saw some pics here, on this news, is it this model that they're gonna build together?:confused:


From the above referenced news article.
"The new alliance would produce a joint Toyota-Tesla car that would be a Toyota vehicle powered by a Tesla drive-train, hitting the market before the Model S."

I am beginning to think Toyota will either electrify a car that was built in NUMMI currently or the Toyota IQ EV will be built here. If Toyota has said they will have a car out before the Model S I tend to go with a Corolla/Matrix as all tooling is in place now.
 
From the above referenced news article.
"The new alliance would produce a joint Toyota-Tesla car that would be a Toyota vehicle powered by a Tesla drive-train, hitting the market before the Model S."

I like occasionally driving my sister's Corolla and I'd really like to see a Corolla with a Tesla drive train and a 120+ mile pack as long as the premium isn't too high.

Purchasing a large existing plant such as NUMMI is smart on Tesla's part as it is probably much cheaper to retool a plant then it is to get the permits, buy the land and build a whole new one from the ground up. They also have more-than-adequate room to expand for production of future vehicles without space issues.

Maybe cooperating with Tesla will cause Toyota to see the light and abandon their Hydrogen program in favor of building electric cars with Tesla. :biggrin:
 
A match made in heaven!

A Corolla/Matrix with a Tesla drive-train.
And most of the tooling is in place.

A better LEAF with more power and range.

One problem with using an existing ICE model would be that batteries will take up trunk or some other space. I guess they will make mods to put the batteries in the bottom.

Ofcource, the other problem is - people would want distinctive styling atleast in the next couple of years ...
 
Some Views of the Toyota-Tesla Deal
By JIM MOTAVALLI

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/some-views-of-the-toyota-tesla-deal/?emc=eta1

Tesla quotes in here:
The ink is still drying on the deal, said Ricardo Reyes, a Tesla spokesman, and he said he wanted to clear up a few things about the company’s purchase of the vast Nummi factory in California, formerly a collaboration between General Motors and Toyota. Toyota and Tesla will collaborate on an electric car, he said, but it’s not clear when that will be happen, and it won’t necessarily be built at what is now being called the Tesla factory (or even in California).

The Model S, which will be built at the Tesla factory, is likely to take up only a quarter of the available space, Mr. Reyes said. “Nummi had the capacity for 500,000 cars a year,” he said. “We see the Tesla factory as an investment in the future, where we can produce our smaller third-generation car, hopefully in much higher volumes than the Model S.”
 
“We see the Tesla factory as an investment in the future, where we can produce our smaller third-generation car, hopefully in much higher volumes than the Model S.”

What would be wrong with Model S achieving higher volumes ? :wink:

If this implies that the current Model S reservation numbers are not as high as Tesla hopes, personally I think Model S numbers will be decided mostly by the experience of actually driving and using a production Model S in real-life, not so much by current expectations. A lot may happen between now and then.
 
And This:
...Aaron Bragman, an industry analyst with IHS Global Insight, goes one step further and says the S probably will ride on a Toyota platform, meaning it will share engineering and major components with a current model like the Lexus IS. Omotoso isn’t so sure, noting that Tesla already has done a lot of engineering for the S, and using a Toyota platform might require going back to the drawing board...
 
One problem with using an existing ICE model would be that batteries will take up trunk or some other space. I guess they will make mods to put the batteries in the bottom.

Ofcource, the other problem is - people would want distinctive styling atleast in the next couple of years ...
Yep. The MINIE and the recent VW concept electric Golf are prime examples. Sometimes you luck out, like with the iMIEV and Smart, where the design of the two cars (on the iMIEV the rear engine design, on the Smart the sandwich design) made it so they could add the batteries under the floor.

The Corolla and Matrix do not have these characteriestics, but the Toyota iQ does (which is why they used it as the basis of their FT-EV).

the S probably will ride on a Toyota platform
I kind of agree with Omotoso more. From the reports, this deal with Toyota was thrown together in weeks and Tesla (from the hints we have been given) has been working on the Model S extensively for months.