I like it. Given the BEV RAV4’s history and the fact that only 2600 units will be made it could become a collector’s item. The 50k USD is also a very reasonable price. It will be made at a big loss for Toyota but they get the usage data early on that they need to develop their own mass produced large BEVs. They also get a chance to test Tesla’s technology so that they know better whether Toyota should make a production deal with Tesla supplying motors for Toyotas future high end BEVs.

When GM betrayed society by giving an oil company EV NiMH patents, Toyota was fined $32 million and forced to kill the EV RAV4 and NiMH EV-95 battery assembly lines.

Toyota poked GM in the eye by selling 2002 EV RAV4s, which are still running today.

The Toyota Prius family may finish off GM again, but the EV RAV4 has a special place in the Toyota heart.

Sooner or latter, Toyota and others, will learn how to make light weight electrified vehicles instead of trying to electrify heavy ICEVs.

Why do we need a 4000 lbs vehicles to transport (most of the time) only one person? A one or two passenger e-car should not weight more than 1000 to 1500 lbs. A 4-passenger unit should not weight more than 2000 lbs.

Sorry, I've read it wrong. It's 2600 cars over the next THREE years ! It's really pitiful. I just don't know what to say. The mighty Toyota manages to put together an electric car with the technological help of a market midget Tesla, and now they will be able to make as many as 2600 over the next THREE years. I don't know if I'm supposed to laugh or cry... So, maybe I'll just cry ...

It's clear now more than ever, there's there will only be 2 real players in the EV market for the near future: Nissan and Tesla.

Tesla we're all aware of - they are even supplying the drivetrain for the RAV4-EV we see here which is very similar to the drivetrain destined for the Model S and unsurprisingly both the Model S and RAV-EV will hit the market around the same time. The difference being that Tesla plans on selling 2600+ $54-$100k Model S sedans by the end of the year instead of over 3 years.

Nonetheless, Tesla will use the experience to increase revenue while they continue on their master plan of increasing volume, refining their drivetrain and reducing costs for their next generation of EVs.

The other, Nissan: So far Nissan has been crippled by a tsunami, unfavorable exchange rate and a single AESC battery plant running at capacity currently supplying for 4.5 different EVs around the world: LEAF, Fluence ZE, Kangoo EZ, Twizy and very soon the Zoe.

Luckily, Nissan has 2 new battery plants coming online - Sunderland in the UK which has just started trial runs and Smyrma in Tennessee which is right behind so if all goes well Nissan will soon be able to sell a lot more EVs.

http://insideevs.com/nissan-leaf-sales-dip-to-2012-lows-with-370-units-sold-ghosn-urges-patience/

@Roger, you are confusing information processing (like computers, lcd screens etc.) with power electronics.

The information processing part of the world is subject to Moore's law (still). The power electronics part isn't.

Batteries are firmly in the power electronics end and are improving very slowly.
There has been considerable pressure on battery performance, and very little to show for it - apart from research reports.

IMHO, the future is in small battery PHEVs or just HEVs. You get a lot more bang from your KwH in a HEV than a BEV.

Lad
I may sound optimistic because my expectations for BEVs are substantially below what many green bloggers expect from BEVs in terms of price and range. I also don’t think it is easy to compare Model S with RAW4 as they are different classes of vehicles and Model S at 57.5k USD will not go into production until the end of 2013 (signature models are prioritized) at which time it will probably come as a 2014 model and the price will be adjusted to say 59.9K USD.

I am more in line with mahonj in that battery development takes much more time than many think. Batteries does not develop with the speed of smart phones were there is substantial progress each year. Roughly stated, in the auto industry is takes 5 years to make a 10% improvement but you get some 30% improvement every year with smart phones.

I hope Toyota is at full speed developing a short EV range plug-in version for all of their hybrids as this has potential to sell much better than the more expensive long range EV plug-ins because the price is lower: Volt 40k USD, Prius Plug-in 32K USD. That should not prevent Toyota from introducing a range of BEVs for both small and larger cars. However, even Toyota cannot excel in everything so they need partners such as Tesla to make their high end electric motors.

Dave R, good news on the Sunderland plant, I had read they were delaying until 2015 for the next gen Nissan battery chemistry.

Toyota sells the Prius Plug-in in California and that can be used to (partially) fill the BEV mandate, perhaps this is Toyota just throwing some money to Tesla and perhaps buying some well earned expertise for $100 million.

I think this Rav4 EV will sell out instantly to green moms :)

Herm, the UK plant is turning out batteries right now, probably for the Renault Zoe/

Even if they build 2600 units, they will have difficulty to sell those. Bevs are already dying, look at the leaf sales and the retarded commercialisation of the tesla model s and the tesla roadster bev is already stopped difinatelly due to poor sale and high production cost. As the imiev it never sold in sensible quantity. It's just that some manufacturers took the subsidies for a while. The fast charger infrastructure is a complete failure on all accounts. Almost nobody own just a bev and it's just a very small portion of brainwasched political statement that bought a bev while keeping their gasoline car when the bev cannot reach the mileage of the day and it happen frequently with a small range of 50-60 miles for the entire day.

If EVs would sell here at $8/gal, why don't they sell elsewhere at that price?

@mahonj Roger's right about displays. TV companies tried all kinds of things to improve them, which required lots of research into materials for light emitters like microscopic molybdenum tipped CRTs, AC and DC plasma cells that got burned in, super-twisted nematic liquid crystals in LCDs, electroluminescent materials, micromirror arrays, I have a liquid crystal on silicon display made by JVC.

Computer chips got smaller with lots of research into doping of silicon and shaping electron channels with layers and sandwiched trough structures, all kinds of techniques to improve heat transfer, electron and hole mobility, in MOS and bipolar semiconductor junctions, etc. Similar research is going on now with all kinds of anode and cathode materials and structures, with incremental success here and there, which will bring down the cost and increase energy density for batteries.

Moore's law isn't a physical law. It's the result of how much investment and risk a company wants to put into successive products. The doubling period might be shorter if a few more million engineers and scientists were working together. It might be longer if computers and electronic stuff weren't so popular.

"Oh wait, GM was convicted of killing and crushing that transportation too.."

Per your own source;
"In 1949, Firestone, Standard oil , Phillips, GM and Mack were convicted of [only] conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and were acquitted of [only] conspiring to monopolize the ownership of transit companies."

I think it is not unreasonable to argue that streetcars, like the Hummer, passenger trains, carriages, surreys and ocean liners are quaint but may or may not be viable today.