{"id":32962,"date":"2010-11-18T09:54:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T14:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=32962"},"modified":"2010-11-18T07:00:48","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T12:00:48","slug":"toyota-reveals-new-rav4-ev-battery-crossover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2010\/11\/toyota-reveals-new-rav4-ev-battery-crossover\/","title":{"rendered":"Toyota Reveals New RAV4 EV Battery Crossover"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Toyota hopes to work out some of the problems with the RAV4-EV by the time it reaches production.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the legendary Yogi Berra might have said, it was \u201cd\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again\u201d for Toyota at the 2010 L.A. Auto Show, the company unveiling its new RAV4-EV.<\/p>\n

Fourteen years ago, recalled the Japanese maker\u2019s top American executive, Toyota came to the Los Angeles show to reveal another electric vehicle dubbed the RAV4-EV.\u00a0 That model, which went on sale in 1997, was a flop on the market due to the limitations of the battery technology of that era.\u00a0 But while CEO Jim Lentz and other Toyota executives said the latest lithium-ion batteries are making great technical strides, they took a cautious and conservative tone when describing the prospects of the latest model to bear the RAV4 EV nameplate.<\/p>\n

Batteries were \u201cthe critical failing\u201d of Toyota\u2019s first battery-powered crossover, \u201cand remain so,\u201d cautioned Lentz, even as he unveiled the new model and revealed plans to begin fleet testing almost immediately.<\/p>\n

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Your High-Performance News Source!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But by the time it actually reaches consumers, said Lentz, Toyota is betting there will be significant advances in the design of the latest RAV4-EV that could make it much more attractive to a mainstream market.\u00a0 For that, credit little Tesla, the Silicon Vally-based start-up that launched its own battery-powered Roadster two years ago.<\/p>\n

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk with the Toyota RAV4-EV.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In an unusual move, Toyota has not only invested $50 million in Tesla but partnered with the start-up to develop the new RAV4-EV.\u00a0 The California firm will provide the powertrain, including the RAV4-EV\u2019s battery pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis unique relationship,\u201d as Lentz described it, fits in with the strategy of Toyota Motor Co. CEO Akio Toyoda to try to turn his company into something that has a quicker, more entrepreneurially approach.<\/p>\n

Initially, in what Toyota has dubbed Phase 0, the partners are using a relatively stock version of the RAV4, replacing the gasoline engine with a Tesla-made electric drivetrain.\u00a0 The result is a vehicle weighing in about 220 pounds heavier than the stock crossover.<\/p>\n

The goal is to make \u201csignificant\u201d design changes to better accommodate battery propulsion with the RAV4-EV, said Lentz, as a Phase 1 version of the crossover is developed.\u00a0 It will likely be lighter and better balanced.<\/p>\n

In typically conservative fashion, the Toyota executive said the goal is to reach production with a RAV4-EV that can deliver 100 miles range and that has nearly as good acceleration as the gasoline-powered crossover.<\/p>\n

For his part, however, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told TheDetroitBureau.com \u201cI would expect to do much better\u201d on both measures.\u00a0 He expects the final version of the RAV4-EV to be at least as quick as the gasoline model, and \u201cwould not be surprised\u201d to bring it to production with the capability of delivering 150 miles of range.\u00a0 That would be a significant improvement on most of the battery cars either currently available or coming to market within the next couple years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Musk said that he hoped to be able to drive down the multi-thousand dollar cost penalty Toyota initially expects for the battery drivetrain.\u00a0 Though the Tesla CEO wouldn\u2019t set a date, he stressed that, \u201cthe target we aspire to is having the incremental cost of the drivetrain be less than the ($7,500) federal tax credit\u201d for electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

A retail version of the Toyota RAV4-EV is due to market by 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the legendary Yogi Berra might have said, it was \u201cd\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again\u201d for Toyota at the 2010 L.A. Auto Show, the company unveiling its new RAV4-EV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32962"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=32962"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=32962"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=32962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}