Full details on Tesla/NUMMI deal disclosed

Sam Abuelsamid — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:58:00 EST

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota, Tesla, Electric

Tesla Model S - Click above for high-res image gallery

Tesla Motors announced last week that it was definitely going to build ist Model S at the former NUMMI factory in Fremont, California. Or it might not. This isn't the first announcement about where this car might be produced. That was way back in February 2007 when the car was still being referred to as Whitestar and it was planned to be built in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Along the way it was also going to be built in San Jose and most recently southern California.

The big surprise press conference held last week with CEO Elon Musk, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda caught everyone completely by surprise and apparently almost none of the i's have been dotted, nor have many t's been crossed. At the time, Musk announced that Tesla would be buying one of three parcels that make up the NUMMI facility, that being the one that includes the actual building facility. Regulatory documents filed by Tesla this week in advance of its upcoming initial public stock offering indicate that Tesla is to pay Toyota $42 million for the building out of its IPO proceeds. That price, however, does not include production equipment, which may go a long ways toward explaining why Tesla got such a "good deal" compared to the $130 million that Fisker paid for a closed General Motors plant in Delaware.

If Tesla wants any of the equipment left behind at the NUMMI facility, it will have to buy that separately at an upcoming auction. Of course, it won't actually need most of it for some time since the company only plans to build about 20,000 cars per year in a plant with a capacity 25 times that.

The product collaboration agreement between Toyota and Tesla is also just that so far, an agreement to collaborate with no additional details specified right now. And that $50 million that Toyota is to invest in Tesla? That will only happen if the IPO actually happens in 2010 and it will be at the offering price. So Toyota's investment may garner it either more or less stock than the nine percent that Daimler got last year for the same price.

Gallery: Tesla Model S in motion

[Source: Green Car Advisor]

Full details on Tesla/NUMMI deal disclosed originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BREAKING: Toyota and Tesla to partner on EV production in California

Sam Abuelsamid — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:27:00 EST

Filed under: Sedan, Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota, Tesla, Electric

Tesla Model S - Click above for high-res image

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda held a joint press in Palo Alto, California to announce that the two companies would be collaborating on electric vehicle development and production, with Tesla will taking over the recently closed NUMMI factory in Fremont, CA to produce the Model S sedan.

Toyota will invest $50 million for a private placement of Tesla common stock and the state of California will provide a sales tax abatement to Tesla for capital equipment expenditures to tool up the plant. Musk estimated that the abatement will amount to about $20 million over the next several years.

According to Musk, production of the Model S will bring about 1,000 employees back to the NUMMI plant to produce about 20,000 cars a year at first, and as the facility expands - possibly to include the production of more models - it could employ up to 10,000 workers. Musk revealed that some employees have already been rehired, but was non-committal on the subject of union representation. NUMMI was the only Toyota plant in North America that was unionized.

An additional benefit to Tesla from this deal is that it will be able to take advantage of the Toyota production system and possibly some of Toyota's suppliers. That's sure to help Tesla avoid many of the logistical problems that hampered early Roadster production and costs.

Production of the Model S is still planned to start in 2012 and Musk said more advanced prototypes would be revealed later this year. No decisions have been made yet about additional vehicles to be produced at the plant which previously had a capacity of more than 300,000 vehicles a year.

The deal for the NUMMI plant leaves Downey, CA jilted at the altar with the city's mayor "feeling stabbed in the back by Tesla." The Toyota deal apparently came together very quickly and Musk acknowledged that he would still like to work with Downey, perhaps for a future Space-X facility. Hit the jump for all the details.

Gallery: Tesla Model S in motion

[Source: Toyota]

Continue reading BREAKING: Toyota and Tesla to partner on EV production in California

BREAKING: Toyota and Tesla to partner on EV production in California originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 May 2010 20:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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