According to my newspaper's business section today, Toyota will be using their partnership with Tesla to build a plug-in version of their compact RAV4 SUV. It will be introduced at the Los Angles Auto Show in November. It will be marketed in the US starting in 2012. The model's battery pack and electric motor are being supplied by Tesla, according to Toyota's Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada (that one is not in the spell checker).
A plug-in version of the Prius that lets drivers travel solely on electric power for about 13 miles goes on sale by June 2012 and is expected to cost about $3000 to $5000 more than a conventional version of the car. Toyota expects to sell about 20,000 of the cars each year.
Global sales of the plug-in RAV4 will be a "few tens of thousands" for the first few years, or less than 10% of the regular Prius model sales. Mr. Ichiyamada repeated that Toyota will also sell a retail model of its hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle to US drivers by 2105.
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Topic: Toyota to electrify the RAV4 (Read 913 times)