Toyota teams with Tesla for an electric shocker of a car

The world’s largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corporation has recently announced its intent to purchase a $50 million stake in Tesla Motors Inc, an electric-car producer who has been working steadily on producing green models.

Also Telsa will be purchasing a closed Toyota joint-venture plant in California which will be utilized in building a Model S among other vehicles. The two automotive companies will work together in developing electric cars, parts, developing engineering and producing more refined production systems.

This will surely make Toyota a more worthy competitor against Nissan Motor Company and General Motors Company, in terms of producing and selling electric cars in the United States. The regulations on greenhouse gas emissions’ and fuel efficiency is forcing the automotive industry to build more responsible cars. Toyotas tarnished imaged, thanks to the atrocious eight million plus battery recalls, could be forgotten once Toyota starts heavily pushing electric vehicles. The revival of the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. Plant named “Nummi” will aid in this process.

Telsa is based in Palo Alto California, where Toyota is based in Japan. Telsa is the only company currently selling U.S. highway-legal batter powered cars.

Toyota is not the only automotive company getting in on the action as the world’s second-biggest maker of luxury vehicles, Daimler AG also invested $50 million in Tesla, which will supply the company with battery packs for an advanced fleet of electronic Smart Minicars.

Although the initial $50 million investment was reduced by roughly five percent, which was sold to Aabar Investments PJSC, all partnerships are still intact.

Toyota has plans to produce a short-range electric car for the U.S. Market and they will begin selling their highly anticipated plug-in Prius hybrid, which has impressive distance and speed capabilities, in 2012. The Prius has already proven that there is a demand for hybrid vehicles in the U.S. and that demand has only just begun to grow, they are currently sold at Toyota dealers around the U.S.

Toyota intends to offer a short-range electric car in the U.S. and begin retail sales of a plug-in Prius hybrid. The plug-in Prius will be sold at your local Schaumburg Sienna dealers sometime in 2012.

The Toyota electric vehicles, which will be sold at your local Toyota dealers, will have to go toe to toe with the Nissan LEAF, which is an electric halfback planned for release in late 2010.