Toyota to build Tesla-powered RAV4 EV in Canada

Toyota RAV4 EV - Made in canada

There was a bit of a kerfuffle last month when a Toyota man went on record to say that Toyota would not be making an electric RAV4 that you and I could buy and that instead the electric RAV4 would be “…focused on very strategic applications”. We took that to mean business fleets.

But it soon transpired that the Toyota man - Toyota’s National Business Planning Manager – has not been speaking with the authority, and Toyota were quick to respond by saying “…2012 RAV4 EV will definitely be sold to the general public”. And now we know where it’s being built.

Despite expectations that electric cars from the Toyota Tesla partnership  - RAV4 EV or any other – would be built in the gigantic ex-Toyota plant Tesla are rattling around in, the electric RAV4 is actually going to be built alongside regular RAV4s at Toyota’s plant in Ontario.

Toyota are paying Tesla $100 million for the powertrains and batteries which would tend to suggest this is an already agreed production run. How else could they know $100 million was the right number? Even so, that seems hugely ambitious when you look at the paltry numbers of electric cars being sold round the world.

We’re guessing the RAV4 EV won’t come to the UK, but we’ll check it out and update.

By Cars UK