International Electric Vehicle Symposium to witness the debuting of Toyota RAV4 electric SUV

The Japanese auto titan, Toyota pays recurring visits to the news section of Indian auto industry. Recently the company was in news because of its announcement of implementing more innovative techniques in the production of its cars and also because of Toyota Kirloskar Motors’ hefty growth of 49 percent in the month of April. The most recent reason for hitting the news is the entry of the all-new Toyota RAV4 Electric Vehicle in the Electric Vehicle Symposium which will take place on 7^th May at Los Angeles. This year’s symposium is the 26^th International Electric Vehicle Symposium and will showcase a number of significant vehicles but the Toyota RAV4 EV holds special place.

On Monday, 7^th May at 12am, a news conference for Toyota will be held at the West Hall in LA Convention Centre. The Toyota Electric SUV RAV4 which is a part of a $100 million partnership between Toyota and Tesla will be officially unveiled during the show. The complete responsibility of RAV4 EV is on Toyota and thus the production will be actioned at Toyota’s plant in Ontario, Canada. On the other hand, Tesla will be responsible for supplying the battery, motor, gearbox and power electronics for this Toyota Electric SUV.

Forming the base of RAV4 EV will be the RAV4 chassis which is manufactured by Toyota itself. In fact, the RAV4 EV is the electric version of RAV4 SUV with the only difference in the drivetrain; gasoline was used for powering the drivetrain in the SUV whereas the EV will use the electric drive train with certain parts supplied by the partner Tesla Motors. Further details are expected to be revealed at the Electric Vehicle Symposium and the official launch is anticipated in July 2012.