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Getbig Main Boards => Gossip & Opinions => Topic started by: Alex23 on May 22, 2010, 02:46:38 AM
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http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/05/schwarzenegger-toyota-tesla-to-build-electric-car-in-california-/1
(http://i.usatoday.guy/_photos/drive-on/2010/05/20/arnoldx-wide-community.jpg)
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger blew the big secret that Tesla has been trying to keep under wraps today: the fledgling automaker is going to partner with Toyota to make an electric car in the Golden State.
Says the San Francisco Chronicle:
The governor is scheduled to attend a "major announcement" with Tesla executives later this afternoon, but said at an unrelated event at Google earlier today that the two companies would begin working together.
The collaboration could help Toyota mend its black eye in the San Francisco Bay area that it gained for pulling out of the joint manufacturing operation, New United Motor Manufacturing, or NUMMI, that it had with General Motors. It employed more than 4,000 in Fremont, Calif. The plant made Corollas until it pulled the plug. The Associated Press says the electric vehicles will be built at the NUMMI plant.
But it's kind of an odd move for Toyota:
Toyota has advanced lithium-ion battery operations in Japan and has always dissed some of the battery efforts elsewhere in the industry. It has never shown a particularily high regard in the past for Tesla's approach, which involves bundling laptop computer batteries together into powerful packs. But it looks like the approach is working, given the increasing number of electric Roadsters that Tesla is selling.
The announcement isn't being made until 8 p.m. ET, a numbskull move that we suspect was driven by the governor's schedule. However, it will help Toyota smother some of the bad press from another airing of its safety fiasco on Capitol Hill today when it comes to dinnertime news casts in California.