Tesla set to deliver prototype EVs to Toyota

Tesla Motors Inc., an electric carmaker working with Toyota Motor Corp. on battery-powered autos, said it will deliver two rechargeable prototypes to Toyota this month as a first step in their alliance.

Toyota, the world's largest seller of hybrid autos, in May said it would invest $50 million in Palo Alto, California-based Tesla and jointly develop electric models with the startup. Both prototypes are modified Toyota vehicles, said JB Straubel, Tesla's chief technology officer.

"Since our announcement in May, Toyota and Tesla engineering teams have made a lot of progress in a short amount of time and it is exciting to start seeing some initial results," Straubel said today in an e-mail message. Tesla has signed an agreement "to deliver two electric vehicle prototypes to Toyota by the end of the month," he said.

Toyota's partnership with Tesla, maker of the $109,000 electric Roadster sports car, is the first of more such alliances the Toyota City, Japan-based company wants to pursue in advanced auto technologies, President Akio Toyoda told reporters yesterday in Nagoya, Japan. Carmakers including Toyota are under pressure in the U.S. and other markets to develop models that consume little or no petroleum and emit fewer gasses linked to global warming.