Tesla Wins $100 Million Supply Deal With Toyota for RAV4 EV
By Alan Ohnsman - Jul 20, 2011 4:15 PM ET
Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), maker of electric Roadster sports cars, said today it reached a three-year agreement with Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) to supply powertrain equipment worth about $100 million. Toyota, which previously agreed to pay Tesla $60 million to develop lithium-ion batteries and motors for use in an all- electric RAV4 sport-utility vehicle, is paying the additional funds for packs and motors for the vehicle that goes into production next year, Tesla said in a regulatory filing.
“Toyota has reasonable confidence Tesla is well-positioned within the battery-vehicle market,” said Alan Baum, principal of automotive consultant Baum & Associates in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The $100 million “isn’t a huge amount for Toyota, so this allows them, with only modest downside risk, to participate in what Tesla is doing.”
Toyota, the maker of the Prius, the world’s best-selling gasoline-electric hybrid, is planning next year to sell more electric-drive models, including a version of the Scion iQ subcompact and a plug-in version of the Prius that runs about 13 miles on battery power before the engine kicks in and the car starts running like a regular Prius.
The automaker bought a 2.9 percent stake in Tesla last year, as part of a deal in which the startup, led by Elon Musk, acquired a former Toyota-General Motors Corp. auto-assembly plant in Fremont, California.
Tesla’s Plans
Tesla is to begin making its Model S electric sedan by mid-2012 at the factory, where it will also make the battery packs and motors for the Toyota model. The plant was shed by GM when it filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and is not part of the current General Motors Co.“This is just the next step as the relationship progresses,” said Mike Goss, a spokesman for Toyota’s North American engineering and manufacturing unit. Toyota hasn’t decided the final production site for the electric RAV4, he said. The gasoline-powered RAV4 is built at Toyota’s Woodstock, Ontario plant.
The supply agreement runs from 2012 through 2014, Tesla said. Khobi Brooklyn, a spokeswoman for Palo Alto, California- based Tesla declined to provide additional details of the contract.
Trading in Tesla shares was temporarily suspended prior to the filing. Tesla rose as much 9.1 percent. The company gained 80 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $28.69 in Nasdaq Stock Market Trading at 4 p.m. New York time after earlier touching $30.44. Toyota’s American depositary receipts, representing two ordinary shares, gained 9 cents to $84.33 in New York.
Tesla is scheduled to release second-quarter financial results on Aug. 3, according to the company’s website.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net
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