Tesla And Toyota Clashed Over RAV4 EV

Earlier this year one of Silicon Valley’s most-celebrated technology partnerships came to an end when Tesla and Toyota announced the end of their EV partnership. A new Bloomberg piece reveals just what went wrong in a clash of cultures and proprietary technologies.

Announced in 2010, the $50 million partnership promised to deliver at least 2,600 RAV4 EVs with batteries and drivetrains developed by Tesla. The electric automaker also bought into the NUMMI factory for the low cost of just $42 million, giving it a much-needed manufacturing hub. Yet almost immediately the wheels began to fall off the wagon.

One of the main points of contention concerned the parking pawl, or lack-thereof, in the Tesla-supplied design proposals. The electric automaker had done away with the device in favor of an electric parking brake backup, but Toyota engineers stood their ground, and it makes me wonder if they weren’t being too set-in-their ways. The RAV4 EV did get the pawl, and Toyota also got its way when it came to designing the battery enclosure as well. Considering the concerns with protecting the battery pack of the Model S, maybe Toyota was in the right on that one.

The regenerative braking feature was another area of contention, and neither the Toyota nor the Tesla engineering teams would share their proprietary software data with each other. That made making adjustments to the system unnecessarily difficult. Customers haven’t been too thrilled with the RAV4 EV’s performance either, and with sales and service limited to only California, just over 1,900 have been sold since going on sale in 2012. The $50,000 price tag was a big turnoff too, though the EPA-rated range of more than 100 miles per charge is the most you can get in an EV that isn’t the Tesla Model S.

The issues go beyond engineering spats though; Toyota has decided to invest heavily into hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a technology that Elon Musk has publicly called “bullshit”. One can’t help but wonder if Musk’s bravado factored into the decision as well?

I can tell you it certainly didn’t help things. With these two former friends now standing in opposite corners of the boxing ring, it’s only a matter of time before they come to blows again. In the battle of Tesla vs. Toyota, we may be seeing the future of alternative fuels decided once and for all.

Source: Gas 2.

Toyota Executive Puts Kibosh On Electric Cars

Toyota is about to pull the plug on electric cars. Production of its last EVs – the eQ electric minicar and RAV4 EV crossover – will be finished by the end of 2014, and there are no plans for any future Toyota full-size electric cars at the moment (though the Toyota i-Road three-wheeler is making headway as a rental). Recently, Mitsuhisa Kato, Toyota’s head of research and development, told Automotive News;

The cruising distance is so short for EVs, and the charging time is so long. At the current level of technology, somebody needs to invent a Nobel Prize-winning type battery.

He says today’s EVs need more batteries to offer the same driving range as a gasoline or diesel powered car. That in turn would increase the cost and charging time, leading to a “vicious cycle.”

Kato’s remarks came at the unveiling of Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell powered car, the FCV, which is set to appear in showrooms in 2015. The Japanese auto industry as a whole is placing a huge bet on hydrogen being the fuel of choice in the future with automakers like Honda and Mazda also committing to hydrogen. At the same time, much of the rest of the automotive industry is pressing ahead to bring more electric cars to market. Somewhere down the line, there will be much weeping and wringing of hands in the board rooms of some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers. We just don’t know which ones yet.

Kato says if electrics turn out to be the way to go, Toyota has the technology already on the shelf and can ramp up production of EV’s whenever that “Nobel Prize winning battery” becomes available. In the meantime, no one is going to be buying fuel cell cars unless tens of thousands of hydrogen refueling facilities get built.

In the end, the key to the EV vs. fuel cell battle will be determined by infrastructure as much as technology.

Source: Toyota