With its own crossover in the works, electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors says it is going to stop supplying battery packs and motors for Toyota, which uses them in the electric RAV4.
Bloomberg News found word of the end of the arrangment in a corporate filing from Tesla last week.
“Toyota is expected to end the current RAV4 EV model this year,” Bloomberg quotes Tesla as saying in the quarterly filing Friday. It says the deal was worth $15.1 million.
Toyota doesn’t break out sale of the electric version of its RAV4, but it’s fair to say it’ws a small-volume vehicle. Yet it has roughly the same powerplant as the Tesla Model S for up to half the cost. The electric RAV4 retails for about $50,000.
Meanwhile, Tesla is working on its own crossover. The Model X, as it is known, has been delayed, but when it hits the market it should be fairly startling, with upward-opening gullwing doors for backseat passengers. It his likely, however, to cost a lot more more than the electric RAV4.
