tesla

Tesla Motors and Toyota will develop an electric version of the latter's RAV4.

The SUV will be a RAV4 with an electric powertrain supplied by Tesla, the companies said Friday. Tesla said it has already built a prototype and hopes to create a fleet of prototypes in a year.

The goal is to release a car in the U.S. in 2012.

In May, Tesla and Toyota announced an agreement in which Toyota invested $50 million in Tesla and they two pledged to collaborate on electric vehicles. Tesla also purchased the NUMMI plant in California.

It wasn't until … Read more

Electric carmaker Tesla Motors has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese automaker Toyota Motor to deliver two electric vehicles to the world's largest automaker by the end of month.

"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," Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel said Friday in a statement. "The prototypes will combine Toyota vehicles with Tesla electric powertrains."

Tesla had announced the partnership to develop electric vehicles with Toyota in … Read more

After an impressive debut, Tesla Motors shares have sunk below their original initial public offering price of $17 per share.

As of this writing, Tesla shares are trading at $15.70. That's a steep decline from the company's ending price on June 29, when the stock was made public. On that day, shares ended up 70 percent at $23.89 per share. On June 30, the stock hit a high of $30.42 per share.

From a purely financial perspective, some might not think Tesla the most viable investment target. The green automaker sells expensive cars, headlined by … Read more

Tesla goes public and revises its Roadster; the new Mini gets revised electronics; the FAA moves forward on flying cars; another Toyota recall for the exact opposite of acceleration; Chevy Volt headed for New York City and Austin, Texas; and we drive the Acura TL SH-AWD.

SHOW NOTES

I hope you are sitting, and not standing. For this is in fact the final episode of Gadgettes. Yes, it sucks. But the show will always live on in the archives. Before you start re-listening to every single past episode, enjoy our final sendoff where we (appropriately) cover nearly all of the segments from the show.

Hot on the heels of this week's IPO and amid anticipation for its upcoming Model S sedan, Tesla Motors invited us to preview the latest upgrades to its Roadster electric sports car. Dubbed the Tesla Roadster 2.5, this new model features revised styling and aerodynamic cues and an available upgraded cabin technology package, which is great, as we'd always found it ironic that a vehicle with one of the most technologically advanced drivetrains on today's roads was saddled with subpar cabin tech.

The most obvious changes to the Roadster 2.5 can be found right up front. A revised front fascia features a more aggressive look, with new vents and a new integrated and color-matched chin spoiler. We think we can see a little MX-5 Miata in the 2.5's new rounded front grill, which is a good thing.

The general effect is a more cohesive appearance than the gaping maw of Roadster 2.0. Off to either side of the new grill are gill-type vents that add to the Roadster's pissed-off face. However, these are not mere styling baubles; rather, they aid in diverting air that's not utilized for cooling away from the high-pressure area at the nose of the car and off to the sides, reducing drag at higher speeds. … Read more

Virgin Group CEO and entrepreneurial icon Richard Branson promised "one hell of a party" for the kickoff flight for air carrier Virgin America's first international route from San Francisco to Toronto on Tuesday, and if the trays of mimosas and acai-cranberry cocktails that kept getting toted past his first-class seat were any indication, his promise would not be broken.

Branson, a British national who was knighted in 1999, has become one of Silicon Valley's icons of late for his enterprises in green energy and the fledgling Virgin Galactic space company, and Virgin America is headquartered in … Read more

Tesla Motors shares zoomed upward to a closing price of $23.89 on Tuesday, handing the electric-car maker the second-best gain in an initial public offering this year.

Even as the broader stock market declined, with the Nasdaq falling by 3.85 percent, investors propelled Tesla shares to a 41 percent gain over its initial price of $17.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based automaker has benefited not just from Wall Street enthusiasm for a plug-in car company, but also from a $465 million loan from U.S. taxpayers and favorable tax incentives from the federal and state governments.

Tesla's $… Read more

Today in tech news, Hulu launches its subscription service and we're thinking about going over the top (maybe next year). Also, FarmVille is apparently so prevalent that it forced a Firefox update ... or, put another way, Firefox gets a little bit broken so that FarmVille people can be happy. Sheesh. Steve Jobs sends more email, Kindle for Android arrives, and we fight for a while about Froyo.