TOYOTA TO CREATE ELECTRIC SUPERCAR

Japanese giant goes electric with help from Tesla

Toyota is set to join the electric supercar craze with a 500hp rival to the Mercedes SLS AMG E-cell and Audi e-tron – and part of the technical help could come from electric sports car specialists Tesla.

US car mag Motor Trend reports that plans are underway at Toyota to develop a 500hp, four-motor (two on each axle) electric supercar that can sprint to 60mph in around 4.0secs. Toyota is said to be aiming for a 2015 launch for the car.

Tesla, which has recently inked a £33 million deal with Toyota to co-develop electric propulsion tech, is likely to lend some of its fast electric car know-how to the project. Quite what form that will take is unknown, but Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda has apparently already gone for a spin in the Tesla Roadster after a dinner with Tesla boss Elon Musk.

Expect the electric supercar to take plenty of design cues from the Lexus LFA supercar project, as well as much of its aerodynamic trickery. The automated composite manufacturing techniques pioneered on the largely carbon fibre LFA are also likely to find their way on to any future electric sports car.

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