Everybody wins a deal: Toyota & Tesla

Perhaps all such events ended at the dawn of the automotive industry. Since the collapse of the Daimler & Chrysler alliance, not one of the largest automakers has joined together in a “joint venture” to develop new masses of customers. Until last Thursday, when Toyota and Tesla announced a partnership to produce cheaper, more massive hybrid cars.

Why is this a deal in which everyone wins? Everything is quite simple. At the Tesla Motors IPO, the Japanese giant pledges to buy back shares for $ 50 million, which in itself is fantastic news for a company listed on a stock exchange. Such an investor inspires confidence and provides demand from small speculators and large institutional funds, so already now Tesla can prepare wallets for cash and think through diversification plans. Toyota, on the other hand, is surrendering to its California-already-non-startup its newly-closed factory in Fremont, Northern California. It is for this reason that you see the “iron Arnie” in the picture - the governor of silicon state has long been fighting for the creation of “green” jobs. The new plant will be assembling the upcoming Model S (electric sedan), which is an advantage for the company, which will not have to transfer its production to China in order to reduce its cost. Toyota, in exchange, receives + in karma from the American government and a good opinion of itself from both buyers and investors.


This, of course, does not end the story. The highlight of the situation is the fact that the largest car manufacturer is slightly behind its competitors in the person of Nissan and Mercedes in the production and development of hybrid cars, even taking into account the popularity of the Prius model. Now both companies will work together on electric cars. Toyota will gain access to the IT mecca of the whole world, where together with the guys from Tesla they will develop know-how in the field of components. Tesla will receive the advice of a global expert in the production of mass vehicles. Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said Toyota will appear on the mass market with a Tesla engine even before the Model S, which is scheduled for release in early 2012.

In addition - Tesla had some problems with the choice of batteries for the compartment, research in this area is prohibitively expensive and complicated. However, Toyota has long been working with Panasonic to create high-performance and voluminous batteries for electric cars, which will allow Tesla to step into the next step in the evolution of its models.

However, the cornerstone now, at the time of the post-crisis economy and job cuts, is still the huge NUMMI factory in California. Built by Toyota in conjunction with GM in 1984, it produced up to 600,000 cars a year (2006 as an example). Of course, Tesla’s plans are more modest - to start with 20,000 cars a year, increasing production over time.

Most experts agree that now Tesla Motors has almost everything in order to effectively enter the market and create their own niche in which they can be extremely successful. For example, in the USA, Model S will cost a whopping $ 50,000 after a $ 7,500 discount that is given to all buyers of green cars.

I personally am very interested in the further development of events, wait for the news from the auto fields.