Thursday, September 23, 2010

Toyota Debuting An All-Electric Compact Car...In China


Want a Toyota-branded compact EV? You'll have to go away to China. Green Car Advisor gossips that Toyota plans to mass-produce an EV in China by 2012.

There's just one catch: Toyota doesn't plan to sell the EV under the name. Even though the car will base on its Vios subcompact, the vehicle will be marketed under a dissimilar brand name as part of the company's joint venture with China FAW Group Corp. No word yet on precise pricing, but Toyota says it will be cheaper than foreign competitors.

U.S. consumers won't have to remain too long to buy Toyota-branded EVs. The company is releasing an electric RAV4 in 2012, and Toyota is supposed to be working on an all-electric supercar that could rival the E-Cell and e-tron. If sales of the Chinese EV are up to par, chances are that Toyota will import a parallel design to other countries as well.

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