Breaking: Tesla Reportedly Discussing $1 Billion Toyota Partnership

[AF News Desk]

Despite closing a research and development center and a satellite office in New York recently, Tesla indicates they are poised to make a significant partnership with Toyota.

Though some of you may be familiar with the partnership established last month to produce the Electric Rav4, this partnership possibility stands to be worth nearly $900 million more.

While details are still developing, it looks as though - based on recent earnings reports - that Tesla believes there can be a extremely beneficial.

The latest from AutoObserver.com:

Originally Posted by Auto Observer, 8/3/11

Tesla Says It's Talking $1 Billion Deal With Toyota


Tesla is best known for their electric Roadster sports car and is reportedly working on a sedan model.

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday that the Silicon Valley EV maker is negotiating a potential $1 billion deal with Toyota.

In a conference call with analysts, Musk said the just-ended second quarter was the best in Tesla's history, with tremendous demand for the Roadster sports car and the upcoming Model S sedan—both battery-electric vehicles—as well as signing a $100 million deal with Toyota, and "we're in discussions with them for a deal that is an order of magnitude larger than that."

A Tesla official later confirmed to AutoObserver that by "order of magnitude," Musk was stating that the 8-year-old company was discussing a $1 billion deal with the world's largest automaker.

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This could be a very interesting partnership with huge implications on the electric vehicle race. Toyota, who has already done considerably well with their hybrid Prius lineup, could take the definitive lead in the EV race.

What do you all think? Does this put Toyota over the top or does this merely make them a contender?

[Intuit]

Does this put Toyota over the top or does this merely make them a contender?

Well as was already alluded to, Toyota was already near/at the top of the game.

But as to answer the question of whether this places them further out-of-reach, I honestly can't say for sure. But suspect it won't make much of a difference for the long-run.

The question that comes to mind is, what technology does Tesla offer that the other companies have not developed ? Can Tesla offer these technologies as a reasonable cost alternative ?

The article mentions something about a $109,000 roadster. That also brings the question of, is Toyota looking to shift the tech toward a higher-priced market ?

If they can modify these technologies to improve R&D, lower manufacturing costs, and remarket them, then it will definitely help. But it might be overstating it a bit to say that this will put them over-the-top.