Toyota and Tesla Partner for Electric Toyota RAV4
The world seemed to get a little bit greener for the average new car buyer interested in a pure electric vehicle this week. After producing the $100,000 Tesla Roadster for the past several years, the upstart electric car company announced a partnership with Toyota aimed at making its technology more affordable for those not able to tap into an unlimited car buying budget.
The initial product of the collaboration between Toyota and Tesla will be a version of the popular Toyota RAV4 compact crossover - a vehicle which Toyota has already marketed in pure electric form in the 1990's. The plan is for Toyota to combine its mass production know-how and investment in the current Toyota RAV4 platform with Tesla's unique battery technology which has split in a different direction from what many other electric car companies have implemented. If all goes well, the collaboration should eventually lead to an electric crossover vehicle that does not carry the same six-figure price tag as Tesla's current flagship Roadster.
The news of the Toyota and Tesla partnership, as well as Tesla's decision to move in to the empty NUMMI factory that the Japanese car company had previously used to produce the Toyota Corolla and Toyota Tacoma coincided with a report from the Automotive News that battery prices may start to tumble down from their current stratospheric levels. The prediction comes straight from President Obama, who related the federal government's forecast regarding battery costs while attending a public function relating to the building of a new battery plant. A dramatic 70 percent downward cost curve over the next five years is the official word, thanks to significant increases in investment in this particular technology. The Department of Energy further projected that the battery cost per kilowatt hour would drop by over 60 percent during the same period. Currently, batteries can make up as much as a third of an electric vehicle's total parts cost.
Could Toyota and Tesla's partnership, backed by the bold predictions with regards to falling battery prices mean that the dream of an affordable electric car might finally become a reality for new car shoppers? Optimistically, yes. The possibility that a pure electric sedan, coupe or crossover could one day cost no more than its hybrid equivalent seems realistic by 2015. Whether car companies will embrace this particular electric vehicle strategy is another question, as the profitability of large scale electric car production has yet to be established. It remains to be seen how many other car companies besides Toyota will buy in to concept that current vehicle platforms can be adapted to battery powered propulsion in a cost-effective manner.