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Toyota Introduces Electric RAV4, Powered By Tesla Motor
thecarchik writes "As they say, everything old is new again. Fourteen years after it launched its very first RAV4 crossover at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Toyota returned to LA to launch an all-electric version of its latest RAV4. And this one is, as the logos in a teaser photo released earlier said, 'powered by Tesla.' The launch of the second version of the RAV4 EV is on a fast timeline, led by a working group made up of Toyota's Technical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a team from Tesla Motors. The partnership will build 35 'Phase Zero' test versions of the latest RAV4 EV next year, with production launch expected in 2012."
The lowest you can go for range and still sell a (non-specialty) gasoline car is 200 miles, and they can refuel anywhere...
Why the 100 mile toys? Why even bother with the leaf and e-Rav if they are going to be useless niche cars that will never see commercial success.
This is not the way forward: To release vastly inferior product after vastly inferior product to try to compete with an established market.
It would be like apple releasing a netbook that is too big to be convenient but too wimpy to be impressive... Oh wait, shit.