Toyota cut its last tie with Tesla as it launched its own electric car effort

Fred Lambert, Electrek.co, June 4, 2017

More recent Tesla enthusiasts might not be aware that Tesla and Toyota used to have close ties. Back in 2010, Toyota invested $50 million in Tesla and they brokered a heavily discounted sale of the Nummi factory, which is now Tesla’s Fremont factory.

Tesla also used to supply the electric powertrain of the Toyota RAV4 EV up until 2014 when the program stopped. At that point, Toyota sold most of its Tesla shares for a healthy profit and this weekend, it confirmed that it sold all its remaining shares before the end of last year.

Toyota spokesman Ryo Sakai confirmed the news yesterday (via Reuters):

“Our development partnership with Tesla ended a while ago, and since there has not been any new developments on that front, we decided it was time to sell the remaining stake,”

They confirmed that they sold their last remaining shares last year just as they were announcing their own all-electric car program.

Due to its heavy investments in hydrogen fuel cells, Toyota fell behind almost every other automaker when it came to all-electric vehicle development.

Read more electrek article here.