[JESSICA LUSSENHOP, SV411]
Tesla, the Palo Alto-based electronic car company, is coming to the rescue of the closed NUMMI plant in Fremont. In a surprise announcement yesterday, Tesla revealed a partnership with Toyota to build its new electric sedan at the famous factory. The Japanese carmaker will reportedly sink $50 million into Tesla. Industry insiders are buzzing that this is the first earnest interest shown by Toyota in the electronic vehicle market.
NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.), which first opened in the ‘60s, was an experimental partnership between General Motors and Toyota that taught Japanese car-making and business philosophy to GM workers. In its heyday, the plant employed 5,700 people. The last NUMMI Corolla rolled off the line on April 1 after GM’s collapse. There is as yet no word on whether the workers who lost their jobs will be rehired.
By all accounts, it appears that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prematurely let the cat out of the bag Thursday morning at the launch of the Green Products Innovation Institute on Google’s Mountain View campus. Although a Tesla spokesperson told the Los Angeles Business Journal she had no idea Schwarzenegger was going to make the announcement, Tesla and Toyota made their own announcement later that day.
The NUMMI-made Model S will supposedly hit the road in 2012.