Thaindian News

By Ranjan Bhaduri
California, May 21, (THAINDIAN NEWS) In a latest move to change its plunging fortune and start a new journey after the recall fiasco, Japan based carmaker Toyota Motor has decided to take a whopping $50 million stake in Tesla Motors. The latter is based in California. Tesla Motors, under the agreement will acquire a closed Toyota plant in San Francisco. It will make a new electric sedan in the plant, as it has been reported. Elon Musk, the Tesla Chief Executive is excited at the tie up with a giant carmaker having international repute and he was approached by the Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda for the deal. The chief of the Japanese carmaker is pretty impressed with the feature and performance of the present generation Tesla Electric car.

Toyota has always thrived to highlight its ‘environment friendly carmaker image’ and it used its flagship model Prius for that purpose. However, the massive global recall also affected Prius hybrid along with its other popular models. The deal with Silicon Valley based carmaker Tesla may aid Toyota in its endeavor. Rival Nissan is also making electric cars and Toyota does not want it to go unchallenged in this domain.

The model that will be made under the collaboration will hit the roads in 2012. Tesla has already tasted success with its flagship Roadster sports car and its steep price tag has not deterred critics from applauding it. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Hollywood star and incumbent governor of California is also pretty upbeat about the Tesla Toyota tie up and he feels that the new plant will open 1000 vacancies which will contribute to the growth of economy in the state.