Tesla planting electric engines into two Toyota prototype bodies
By Darren Murph 
posted July 10th 2010 10:33PM
posted July 10th 2010 10:33PM
Word on the street had it that Tesla's $50 million deal with Toyota wasn't formal back in late May, but evidently things have made positive progress since. According to a new (though admittedly brief) report over at CNN, Toyota is currently working with the electric automaker on a pair of prototype vehicles. As the story goes, Tesla will be delivering two prototypes to Toyota "by the end of the month," with the vehicles using "Tesla's electric motors and battery packs and the bodies of Toyota vehicles." Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel has been quoted as saying that the two outfits have "made a lot of progress in a short amount of time," and we couldn't be more excited to see what kind of results will come from this tie-up. We can't help but hope that those regenerative brakes do a bit more than regenerate, though. Sorry, we had to. Really.
This will be good.
@Ninetysix very good*
@Ninetysix
So is Tesla like the "Apple" of vehicles?
Because there has been QUITE ALOT LATELY
@uckApple
I've always thought it would be cool if Apple bought Tesla. Wouldn't that be something? Jony Ive would have a field day.
@HahaHaha321 Then they would cost $200,000
@Ninetysix
at least there will be a decent alternative to BMW YuppieMobiles!
@Ninetysix Unless they figured out how to buy Li-ion batteries for 8X cheaper or they have a new battery that is just as good with a similar cost to weight density this is going no where. Even then it would still take the 3.5 hours to charge with a new $4000+ electrical system added to your house. blaaa
@uckApple Sounds to me like Tesla will be the Tivo of electric vehicles
(Disclaimer: I own Tesla stock)
@okok only Apple Fanboys bought i
This is a tech blog, not just phones, so it includes techy cars, and faucets, and while I agree with some of your comments on some other posts, you typically sound like your trying to get people to downrank you, so shut up
@okok only Apple Fanboys bought i
Were you born dumb or did you bump your head on the way out.
@okok only Apple Fanboys bought i
OK, so where is this company that sells1000 FULLY ELECTRIC VEHICLES every 3 days, with better battery technology, and a real computer inside? What, it doesn't exist? Right.
Cuz there's this company called Tesla Motors that has been selling a fully electric vehicle for 3 FUCKING YEARS, while your Ford (LOL) and other dinosaurs have been playing catch-up and are 4-6 years behind the curve.
@Edobe As opposed to the $100k plus price tag that these two cars will have?
@shishi Mellow out, your "awesome" company Tesla has sold only 1000 of their "magical" vehicle in 3 years, that means they are a gimmick and not worth the money.
Look there has been lots of TALK of these electric vehicles, but I'm sure there are more chargers out there than cars, no one wants them and the only reason they still make news is because of wishful thinking, not because there is a market for these limited use things
@Edobe
*bumpers not included
@z0phi3l
Only sold one thousand "magical" (your word, no one else's) Tesla Roadsters, so it is a gimmick? That a goofy scale. I guess every car that could be called exotic is a gimmick. I guess that means gimmick isn't a bad thing! There are a lot of exotic... err... gimmick cars out there that have sold less than one thousand of a particular model and we'd do ridiculous things to own one. If you deny this, (Ferd ef150 4-lyfe!!11!1?) you're either lying to yourself or your a nun who's renounced material possessions.
@okok only Apple Fanboys bought i
This is not a phone website... This is an Apple website
@shishi
Ford prehistoric? Catching up? Ford is one of the best automakers out there. Their designs are getting better and better. You are stuck in the late 80's and early 90's man. No one is playing "catch up" with Toyota or Tesla because Tesla will not go anywhere until there is some kind of breakthrough in battery technology. Manufacturing cars isn't just some fun experiment. Many automakers aren't releasing half-assed electric cars with shit range because there's still oil out there. People buy energy efficient cars to save money, not the environment, that is why mfg's are marketing cars with increased MPG's, not grammes of carbon emitted.
I drive a 2010 honda civic that i bought brand new for 15k that gets 40mpg on my 60mile/day commute, and I would save more money over the next 8 years than you would buying a car from Toyota/Tesla even if they sold it to you for 30k.
@Ninetysix
nice bite on the joke engadget
@questionexclamation
Ford had to get bailed out by the US goverment right? And they needed to drastically alter their business model, because it was outmoded right? Talk about stuck in the 80's.
Tesla have made breakthroughs already in battery technology, but do you think that if we just sit around and wait, someone is just going to stumble across better battery technology? No, it's the same as with any technology. If we listened to you we'd be perpetually waiting 6 months for "something better" to happen.
The reason Auto makers aren't releasing electric vehicles, is that it takes time to set up an entire infrastucture. One of the shortcuts they can make is licensing Tesla's battery technology, because it's better than anything that they could make without investing a shitload of time and money (which they are probably starting to do now anyway).
And "because there's still oil out there", yeah and it's all in the gulf of Mexico wiseguy. What are you going to do in 8 years time when oil is so scarce they're charging $20 a litre for it? Dip a bucket in the sea? Good luck with your projected cost of oil there.
Happy birthday Nikola Tesla!
:) had to say it
@NeatOman FYI, it is rumerd by good sources that Nikola Tesla had an Electric Pierce Arrow back in 1930, the ICE engine was replaced with an Electric Motor and he used magnetic resonance much like MIT has done this year for the power source (my guess is that it came from Niagara Falls). Witch is probably why they decided to call the car company "Tesla".
Also, Nikola Tesla does have a patents for the wireless power concept ;) you can check them out freely on the interwebs
@NeatOman
When you read the stuff Tesla invented/worked on it was a serious list of achievements. Make me wonder what else we lost in that fire.
@NeatOman
There were electric cars before that like the 1912 Baker electric. Ray Carr drove one cross country in 1995 to prove how good it still was
http://www.mainlinetoday.com/Main-Line-Today/May-2008/FRONTLINE-Profile-2/ he's since driven it across australia
@charlied Check this out ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ2QciCN5Ks
http://waterfuelcell.org/
But will it brake?
@Game4set
Partially.
@Game4set but will it play Crysis?
Awesome... finally I can get a Toyota for over $100K.
@kingofwale You can do that now...just find a Camry that's propelled itself uncontrollably through the side of a Ferrari.
@kingofwale
It's called a Lexus.
@kingofwale
watch them use a Miata body! hahahaha!
@McKirf
Oh wait! Miata is a Mazda! Nevermind! It's Saturday give me a break!
So do you not call it a gas pedal now?
"ZOOM PEDAL"
wait Toyota already had that problem
@rmbrown09
You can call it an accelerator.
@rmbrown09
that even works in the ford f-150 provided that you have a thick floor mat similar to the toyota issue. tried it and it did the same thing (hopefully ford fixed it otherwise same toyota mess)
@Zzephyr http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll216/thehelper007/Funny%202/macs.jpg
It will never match the Millennium Falcon.
Look, they're not going to come in with prices much better than the Model S. Why can't we just get the Model S. :) I really really want that thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now Toyotas will be able to accelerate uncontrollably even faster. Long live Tesla engines and Toyota's engeneering. Btw, I was under impression that Toyota's batteries were... well... shit. And why would Tesla use Toyota bodies anyway? All new Toyotas look hedious.
@bathellfire
Because with Toyota's brand, resources and target audiences they could make their technology go mainstream, which is a great idea. I don't think Toyota designs are bad per se, just too conservative (bland).
@bathellfire At least if the accelerator pedal gets stuck, the batteries will die out quickly.
Tesla is amazing. I can't wait to see more on the road.
@okok only Apple Fanboys bought i
Just get a freakin' life and quit trolling Engadget posts with your idiotic flame bait! In the 12 days since you've been a commenter here on Engadget, among your 150-ish comments, I've only seen a handful of comments not railing against whatever the topic of the post is. If you don't like to read about any of these topics, and don't have a constructive word to say about them, then how about you just GTFO!
@HahaHaha321
I've heard that it drives worse than an old pick-up.
@okok only Apple Fanboys bought i
Yah I see your name and know who you are rather than random commenters that I've never heard of cause they don't troll, and your talking about this car as if because it's not made by apple it's not important, while i think my 2047 iCar is great (I get 800 miles on a single charge, it's all electric, has and ios 50.0 screen on the dashboard, and has apples nav app that they introduced a few years ago, btw I'm from the future) anyways where was I? While I think an actual iCar would be cool, apple isn't in the car business right now, so there's really no reason to bash cars, except for ugly boring toyotas IMO ironically, but your really bashing tesla not Toyota STOP TROLLING
@That guy 2 Don't give the troll the satisfaction of a reply.
@That guy 2
Sounds fun, but you'd end up driving it wrong.
But will it blend?
this should prove to be interesting for Tesla's stock. anyone buying?
@smokeyb111 been thinking about it. The price dropped quite a bit after the first day. It's pretty risky though and I don't know anything about buying stocks, lol.