Surprising news today from California… from the WSJ. Toyota and Tesla are partnering up!
Tesla Motors Inc. said it is partnering with Toyota Motors Inc. to make electric cars at a recently shuttered auto plant in Fremont, Calif., in a deal the two companies said also involves Toyota putting $50 million into Tesla.
The cars will be made at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., known as Nummi, a joint venture between General Motors Co. and Toyota in Fremont that had closed earlier this year, Tesla officials said in a statement.
CEO Akio Toyoda said:
“By partnering with Tesla, my hope is that all Toyota employees will recall that ‘venture business spirit' and take on the challenges of the future,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda said in a statement. Toyota said it plans to introduce electric vehicles in 2012.
I hate to be so cynical, but I think GM also expected Ross Perot and EDS to bring a venture business spirit into GM and, instead, GM had a negative impact on EDS!
It does raise the issue of culture… our friend Pete Abilla of the Shmula blog tweeted:
values misaligned: i wonder if this partnership between tesla and toyota will work – http://is.gd/cicyb – I hope so #lean #nummi
— papiofficial ᛤ (@shmula) May 21, 2010
In the blog post he linked to (“Tesla Motors is not Toyota: A Contrast in Disrespect and Respect of People“), Pete criticized Tesla for short-term thinking and for firing employees via a blog post (or at least making them aware of the Detroit office shutdown that way).
Micki Maynard, from the NY Times, tweeted:
Can you use TPS for what is essentially a car built by hand? They did at Aston Martin, so no reason why not for Tesla.
— Micheline Maynard (@MickiMaynard) May 21, 2010
And we had this exchange:
@markgraban it's a little premature to say it "will work" in a company that's been led by an entrepreneur. Musk has to buy into TPS, too.
— Micheline Maynard (@MickiMaynard) May 21, 2010
To the readers — what do you think? Reactions? Predictions? Will the UAW be involved?
It will be interesting to see what happens!
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Here is Kevin Meyers’ post from the Evolving Excellence blog on this subject:
http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2010/05/nummi-is-revived-is-toyota.html
Here is a post from Jon Miller at the Gemba Panta Rei blog:
http://www.gembapantarei.com/2010/05/toyota_partnering_with_tesla.html
Is there any word on job openings?
From Facebook:
“Now that’s what I call creative destruction :)”
[…] I was able to tour the NUMMI factory in 2005, which I really enjoyed (see my series of blog posts here). NUMMI was, of course, a joint venture between Toyota and GM (as John Shook talked about recently at the Lean Startup conference). NUMMI was shuttered a few years back when GM pulled out of the partnership, but the building was purchased and re-opened by Tesla. […]