Big News: Toyota and Tesla to Build Cars at NUMMI
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
— Pete Abilla @shmula (@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!
What do you think? Please scroll down (or click) to post a comment. Or please share the post with your thoughts on LinkedIn.
Don't want to miss a post or podcast? Subscribe to get notified about posts via email daily or weekly.
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. […]