The partnership between Toyota and Tesla Motors seems to be getting even cozier as Tesla has revealed that its original deal with Toyota is getting a $100 million injection.

The Toyota-Tesla agreement will see Tesla producing an electric power train system for Toyota’s upcoming 2012 RAV4 EV, which, contrary to a rumor from earlier this week, will be made available to the public.

While this $100 million is simply just an extension of the deal the two motor companies inked back in 2010, it is a significant amount and could directly aid in the development and production of the hotly anticipate Tesla Model S electric sedan.

[Edit] - As stated in the comment section below by it seems that this bad news about the RAV4 EV is incorrect. We have verified this to be true and look forward to an electric RAV4 being made available to the general public next year.

While there are definitely more options out there than a few years ago for eco-friendly cars like hybrids and electric vehicles, there is still a lot of space for more options. Particularly in the world of pure electric cars, Toyota has become like a sleeping giant. As it makes money hand-over-fist with its uber popular Toyota Prius, EV fans eagerly await their efforts on the pure electric car front.

It seemed like the waiting had come to an end with the recent announcement that the partnership between Toyota and Tesla would produce a RAV4 EV next year. Sadly, while that is true, the 2012 RAV4 EV won’t be made available to the general public. It’s only being sold to operators of fleets and car sharing programs.

The first generation of Toyota RAV4 EV is still fondly remembered from its debut and abrupt cancellation some 15 years ago; a subject which is examined in the popular documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?

Tesla Motors changed the public face of electric cars with its high-speed, all-electric Roadster. The Roadster accomplished its goal of grabbing attention, changing public perception and selling a few high-end electric sports cars. Now it’s time to shift focus as in two months from now Tesla is getting serious and committing itself to the upcoming Model S.

The Tesla Models S will be significantly cheaper than the Roadster and will offer a great deal more practicality along with its lack of a tailpipe as well as some seriously flashy features inclusing: seating for seven passengers, very long battery ranges dependent on the model (160, 230, or 300 miles), 45 minute QuickCharge, 0-60 in 5.6 seconds, 120 mph top speed, and 17-inch touch screen with 3G to name a few.

Model S production is currently slated to begin in mid-2012.

Tesla Motors has assembled a battle plan for combating range anxiety for the Tesla Model S. First buyers of the hotly anticipated electric sedan will get to pick from three different editions that all exceed the typical top range of most electric cars.

The base Model S will boast a range of 160 miles, while the upper tier editions will have a massive 230 miles and 300 miles all on a single full charge. If owners still feel the range anxiety kick in they will have the added comfort of knowing they can swap their batteries at Tesla stores.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk explained the value of the program saying, “When people take an occasional two-way long distance trip, they’ll get a replacement pack and then pick up their original one on the way back. The issue of giving up your one-year old pack for a three-year old one goes away.”

As you may have already heard, Tesla Motors stock prices made a big jump today by 17.5% on news that Morgan Stanley Analyst, Adam Jones, re-evaluated Tesla Motors stock value to “overweight” from “equal weight” and picked a price target of a whopping $70 – a substantial increase from where Tesla opened this morning at under $24.

Jones confidently described Tesla Motors as “America’s Fourth Automaker,” and went on to state that Morgan Stanley expects that “conditions are ripe for a shake-up of a complacent, century-old industry heavily invested in the status quo of internal combustion.”

While we here at Eco Auto Ninja couldn’t agree more, there are a few red flags about this assessment. The first being the massive increase in valuation. The second being that Morgan Stanley is one of the lead underwriters on the Tesla IPO. While we are by no means experts on the matter, we’re pretty sure that this could be construed as a bit of a conflict of interest. What do you think?

If you hadn’t already heard, the Wikileak du jour is that the US believes that Saudi Arabia has hit peak oil, or in other words, the maximum rate of oil extraction has been reached.

Not only has the peak been hit but the report suggests that the world will start to see a decline in oil production growth as early as 2012. This is due to the claim that Saudi Arabia has less oil beneath its sands than it has been making out. As a country that provides one fifth of the world’s oil this means, if true, the world will feel the pinch soon enough.

It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean that oil production will start to decline after reaching peak oil, only that it will no longer increase. That increase has generally been taken for granted as the global consumption has continued and continues to increase yearly. So if this leak is true, and the US is indeed correct, the world will still feel the pinch and oil prices would likely increase drastically simply because it can’t keep up with the general increasing demand.

Is this the right time to start investing in electric car companies like Tesla Motors? Only time will tell for sure.

Reuters has reported that Tesla Motors is on the verge of getting a new partner in the form of a big investment from Panasonic. The association of the two companies is nothing new as the Panasonic is already has a contract with Tesla as they will be the ones providing the lithium-ion batteries for the upcoming electric sedan, the Model S (pictured above).

While the Panasonic investment in Tesla hasn’t been officially announced, Reuters is reporting that the amount of capital being injected into Tesla Motors will be less than the $50 million that Toyota brought to it in May of this year.

As we reported earlier, Tesla Motors has been working with Toyota on an electric version of the RAV4. Now it seems that the name of this electric SUV will be the Tesla Model X.
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk told Green Tech Media that they are hoping to show a prototype of the EV SUV in late 2011.

While we wait for the Tesla Model X, we will see the highly anticipated electric sedan, the Tesla Model S (pictured above), put into production in mid 2012 with an anticipated production volume of 7,000 in the first year, followed by another 20,000.

As most people know, however, this early hit is entirely to be expected and doesn’t really factor into how one might expect Tesla to fair in the future. Any company with such intensive research and development and manufacturing processes is sure to take a while before turning a profit, especially one that just purchased a $42 million factory to produce its upcoming electric car the Model S. It’s likely that we’ll continue to see quarterly reports of loss for the next year or more.

Clearly investors aren’t phased by this report as the Tesla Motors (TSLA) stock prices hadn’t moved with this announcement and remain slightly below the opening price.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda recently let it slip that Toyota is currently creating an electric car that uses a Tesla battery pack. The interesting tidbit came out while he was answering inquiries regarding the Tesla and Toyota relationship.

While Toyota currently has a joint venture with Panasonic who is building their larger car batteries, Toyoda indicated that they are definitely interested in seeing what they can do with the Tesla 18650-format cells that are generally the type of battery found in laptops. By way of example, the Tesla Roadster battery pack uses 6,831 of these cells to power the electric sports car.

The likelihood of seeing Toyota cars using Tesla battery packs will all depend on how well they perform in these prototype tests which will look at the their ability to function past large scale accumulated mileage and extreme weather conditions.