Tesla to stop supplying batteries for Toyota

[dm33]

Tesla to stop supplying batteries for Toyota

..."Tesla Motors says it is going to stop supplying battery packs and motors for Toyota, which uses them in the electric RAV4."

I hadn't heard this before. Says it was in a corporate filing last week. Is this because Toyota doesn't care about BEVs and is just focusing on FCEV? Or are they planning to do their own [FONT=arial, sans-serif]power train? I assume this doesn't have a material impact on Tesla.[/FONT]

 

[doug]

That RAV4 EV hasn't exactly been a top seller.

 

[Ampster]

It may simply be that the RAV4EV is nearing the 2600 they intended to sell in California. When I bought my RAV4EV I knew it was a California compliance car. I was hoping that it would be so successful that Toyota would decide to build more. Instead they announced their commitment to "fool" cells.

 

[bonnie]

Perhaps if the stealerships knew how to sell an EV, it would have done better. (Assuming they had one to show. Assuming Toyota had publicized it at all.) All they've done is provide more data that the current automotive distribution model doesn't work for EVs.

 

[Ampster]

No doubt. The nail in the coffin for me was their recent announcement of moving their Headquarters to Plano, Texas. I have many friends facing a tough career choice.

 

[Ugliest1]

It's funny (not ha-ha, but tragic) that the way the article is written it implies Tesla is the one stopping the contract because of the Model X coming soon. But later in the article it says Toyota won't produce the RAV EV beyond the 2,600 (I agree with the reasons suggested up-thread). So it's that Toyota isn't renewing the contract, instead.

If only in my career I could have blatantly twisted the facts and created false impressions as much during my work life presentations and reports -- would have made the job much easier, temporarily (until real life caught up). I'm just extra-sensitive (read: pissed) right now because of all the FUDing from the past several years, and realizing in addition to the FUDers how very few good journalists/writers there are left in the world.

 

[jerry33]

I'm just extra-sensitive (read: pissed) right now because of all the FUDing from the past several years, and realizing in addition to the FUDers how very few good journalists/writers there are left in the world.

That's because journalists are rewarded on the amount of income they provide rather than the accuracy or usefulness of the articles they produce.

 

[Skotty]

I'm surprised that Toyota isn't trying harder. They may end up getting left in the dust. Frankly, I'd be happy to see that. I've never liked Toyota and would love to see them start losing consumer confidence and market share.

 

[Doug_G]

If you've listened to anything Toyota execs are saying, they totally don't believe in EVs. They think gas hybrids are the future. That's their vision.

 

[Blurry_Eyed]

Perhaps this Toyota/BMW partnership explains in part why they may be moving away from Tesla right now

BMW-Toyota partnership may yield hybrid Z4 - MarketWatch

 

[ecarfan]

If you've listened to anything Toyota execs are saying, they totally don't believe in EVs. They think gas hybrids are the future...

...and fool cells.

 

[ecarfan]

BMW-Toyota partnership may yield hybrid Z4 - MarketWatch

From that article: "Both Toyota City and Munich have been playing with the potential of supercapacitors for years and they’ll finally be deployed in a production state in the new vehicles. Toyota’s monstrous 420-hp Yaris Hybrid R concept used the system, pairing a 300-hp gasoline engine with a troika of electric motors."

I suspect the mention of "supercapacitors" going into a "production" vehicle is incorrect.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

We have two RAV4-EVs at work now and the owners can't say enough about how good they are! One of the owners didn't even know that it was "Tesla Inside" and that says something about the sales experience they must have had and the lack of interest that Toyota and the dealers have in pitching it.

Musk has said that he'd have wanted Toyota to price the RAV4-EV at a lower price point than $50k out the gate but, I guess Toyota never really wanted to sell more than 2,600 anyway. By the way, many security vehicles at the Tesla Factory in Fremont are RAV4-EVs.

 

[stopcrazypp]

If you've listened to anything Toyota execs are saying, they totally don't believe in EVs. They think gas hybrids are the future. That's their vision.

Yep. A lot of them do feel hydrogen would be the future. They can't imagine a technology working that can't refill in under 5 minutes. Toyota is only doing the RAV4 EV because their fuel cell car simply isn't ready to start generating ZEV credits in California (despite it getting 3x as many credits per vehicle when does).

I think there's two other:
1) EVs are eating into their primary hybrid business (there's a fear it'll leapfrog hybrids and short circuit all the potential profit that they would have made from their hybrid investments)
2) Nissan is stealing their tech-leader spotlight with the Leaf

 

[Cosmacelf]

Everyone is soon going to offer hybrid options for most of their vehicles. Toyota will be lost in a sea of competitors.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Everyone is soon going to offer hybrid options for most of their vehicles. Toyota will be lost in a sea of competitors.

Well, it's not really happened so far. The extra hybrid competition has just grown the hybrid market. Plug-ins are eating into the Prius.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Everyone is soon going to offer hybrid options for most of their vehicles. Toyota will be lost in a sea of competitors.

But Toyota is still clearly the leader in that market despite new competitors. I'm pretty sure there aren't that many conquest sales against the Prius from other hybrid competitors (the Insight was the best attempt and it has been a market failure). However, there are plenty of conquest sales from EVs.

Plus Toyota has the technology/investments to fight head to head vs other hybrids. They don't have the same vs EVs.

 

[Barry]

Tesla to stop providing batteries to Toyota - Heard on local news this morning

for their RAV4 EV, to prepare for production of the Model X. A good sign, I suppose

 

[timf]

The Rav4 EV is nearing the end of its 2600 unit run, so this is completely expected. Since Toyota has made it clear that they do not support battery electric vehicles and would rather go the hydrogen fuel cell route, there's nothing else for Tesla to supply.

 

[bonnie]

Nothing to do with the Model X (it's the same battery as used for the Model S, too). It was because of a decision by Toyota to stop selling the Rav4 EV.