Big News: Toyota and Tesla to Build Cars at NUMMI

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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:

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:

And we had this exchange:

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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4 Comments
  1. Mark Graban says

    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

  2. Peter Sun says

    Is there any word on job openings?

  3. Mark Graban says

    From Facebook:

    “Now that’s what I call creative destruction :)”

  4. […] 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. […]

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