05-24-2010, 03:51 PM | #1 |
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Toyota's partnership with Tesla
I had a chance to catch up on some reading and one of the events that caught my interest was Toyota's partnership with Tesla. The more I look at the details, the more I'm convinced it was a brilliant move for Toyota.
The biggest surprise to me was the small investment Toyota made - only $50 Million - that's chump change in the car business. The other item that caught my attention is Tesla will take control of the NUMMI assembly plant in California that Toyota just closed. The NUMMI plant was the GM/Toyota joint-venture that collapsed when GM canceled the contract as part of their bankruptcy. NUMMI was Toyota's only plant with UAW employees and Toyota closed the plant last month. The interesting part is Tesla acknowledges they only need a small portion of the NUMMI plant. Don't be surprised if Tesla hires non-UAW workers and then Toyota follows and uses NUMMI's excess capacity to build vehicles using non-UAW labor too. This will be Toyota's way of breaking their UAW agreement. On a final note, I think Toyota's plan is brilliant because the jury is still out on how much demand there's going to be for plug-in electric vehicles. Nissan's making a huge bet with their Leaf but the vehicle may lose a lot of its appeal if the tax breaks go away. Bottom line - that's probably the best $50 million Toyota will ever spend. |
05-25-2010, 03:39 AM | #2 |
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Well, if the administration gets any of their "Green" legislation...The Energy Bill, the president himself says that electricity rates will skyrocket. That combined with the philosophy of, "Never let a good catastrophe go to waste", (the federal government doing nothing about the oil spill in the gulf), will drive gasoline prices up as well. I bet you'll see the tax breaks moved to bicycles and rickshaws. As soon as we're ground down to an economy similar to that of China, I think we're all in for a rough ride.
With all the hype about electric cars, and knowing that many companies including GM had them on the road successfully in the 90's...there's something very strange about the delay in seeing them today in the marketplace. Companies are retrofitting vehicles today but there isn't much talk about them. If small companies can just drop the gas engines and drop in electric motors and controllers now...why can't GM or Ford...or Toyota or Nissan? And...why isn't Tesla making vehicles today? It's been how many years in development? It's just odd from one end to the other this electric vehicle story. |
05-25-2010, 06:30 AM | #3 |
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I've had the benefit of visiting the local Tesla dealership in Boulder, and I must say, I love their marketing strategy. The dealership, if you can call it that, is occuping a tiny corner lot on the west end of Pearl Street. Low(er) overhead. For anyone who's been to Pearl Street in Boulder, it is the pedestrian walk, the heart of the town. So, now everytime someone takes one of these things on a test drive, there are about 100 people looking on drooling for their opprotunity and a pay raise to buy that opprotunity. Word of mouth marketing at it's finest.
Let's hope that Toyota doesn't get the opprotunity to suck the fun out of these vehicles. I do agree, this is a brilliant investment to align themselves with the battery powered future. Now, if they could just replace the quiet of the battery power with the sound of a '67 Mustang, I'd be in. |
05-25-2010, 05:12 PM | #4 | |
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That said, I guess they do currently produce a two-seat sport car that sells for $100K. I don't know how many they've built and I doubt there's too much demand. (I think this is the same platform Chrysler was going to use for their EV vehicle when Nardelli made his big announcement two years ago.) Apparently they have a four-door that will be released in 2012 that will sell for $40K. The project is being partially funded by $465 Million in Department of Energy loans. |
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05-25-2010, 05:17 PM | #5 | |
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I wonder what their distribution strategy is once they have a high volume vehicle? Won't they need dealers to deliver and service vehicles? It's not like they're selling an i-Phone. |
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