Rumormill: Toyota, Tesla to jointly develop electric prototype by year's end

Just a few days back, we glanced over Tesla's amended IPO statement and discovered some well-buried words that suggested Tesla and Toyota may never work together on the development of an electric vehicles. The words from Tesla actually read, "We have not entered into any agreements with Toyota for any such arrangements, including any purchase orders, and we may never do so."

Tesla snuck that word "may" in there, leaving the possibility open that some sort of jointly-developed vehicle may come in the future. If a report surfacing from the Nikkei newspaper in Japan is accurate, Tesla and Toyota may have already struck a deal to develop an electric prototype by the end of the year.

The Nikkei doesn't provide much to go on, nor does it give many specifics. Without detailed info or confirmed sources, we'll have to call this one nothing more than a rumor, but we certainly hope that it pans out to be true. Here's what the Nikkei reported:

Upon forming capital and business ties last month, Toyota and Tesla said that they will jointly develop electric vehicles and share expertise, such as Tesla's electric-vehicle technologies and Toyota's production know-how. As the first step, the two firms aim to develop a prototype based on a current Toyota model using Tesla's lithium-ion-battery-based system. Actively utilizing Tesla's technologies will likely enable Toyota to lower the cost of its future electric vehicles, a Toyota executive said.

Like we said, we can't confirm any of this yet and it may just be a well-placed rumor, but it piques our interest and we'll certainly keep a close eye on it.

[Source: Nikkei via Green Car Congress | Image: Speculative rendering by reader Joona Kallio]