Toyota, Tesla team on electric SUV

There's news on our sister site, SmartPlanet, today that Tesla and Toyato have announced the first product to come out of their partnership announced back in May: the two companies are teaming on a RAV4 model that will be launched in 2012.

Personally speaking, I like the focus of this launch, because it acknowledges that families of four or more just can't squeeze into most of the teeny electric cars (or sports cars!) that are being built. Now, you can keep driving an SUV and not worried about being keyed by some rabid environmentalist!

The prototypes for the new model are due to Toyota this year.