More recent Tesla enthusiasts might not be aware that Tesla and Toyota used to have close ties. Back in 2010, Toyota invested $50 million in Tesla and they brokered a heavily discounted sale of the Nummi factory, which is now Tesla’s Fremont factory.

Tesla also used to supply the electric powertrain of the Toyota RAV4 EV up until 2014 when the program stopped. At that point, Toyota sold most of its Tesla shares for a healthy profit and this weekend, it confirmed that it sold all its remaining shares before the end of last year. expand full story

Late last year, Toyota finally took a significant step toward making electric vehicles after years of being stuck in fuel cell development. They set up a new division to build their first all-electric vehicle and they even put CEO Akio Toyoda in charge of the new team.

Now Toyoda is apparently still fleshing out the Japanese automaker’s electric vehicle strategy and looking at Tesla for inspiration. expand full story

NVIDIA, a leading GPU maker, has been emerging as an important computing power supplier for the automotive industry’s transition to autonomous driving. Over the past two decades, the computing power in the passenger cars has increased significantly, but it’s nothing compared to how it will have to increase over the next decade in order for cars to drive themselves.

Toyota has become today the latest automaker to team up with NVIDIA in order to accelerate their autonomous vehicle program. expand full story

Toyota is undoubtedly having difficulties selling the Mirai, its hydrogen car, in the US. Despite cutting the price on several occasions, with now a lease at only $350 (down from $500) in California, the Japanese automaker can’t find a market for the vehicle and only delivered 782 units during the first 2 years of production. That’s despite the millions of dollars in government money spent on refueling infrastructure.

The automaker is now turning to big rigs to use the fuel cell hydrogen powertrain with a new prototype unveiled today. expand full story

Toyota, the largest automaker in the world, announced today a new $35 million initiative to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop new advanced materials with a focus on creating the next generation battery for electric vehicles.

The project is led by the US-based Toyota Research Institute (TRI) and they will work with “research entities, universities, and companies on materials science research.” expand full story

It’s the Geneva Motor Show and new car concepts are being unveiled left and right. Electric vehicles account for a significant number of those new concepts to the point that Toyota, which is known for betting on hydrogen fuel cells and its hacked up Prius Prime over EVs is also debuting a new electric concept.

The Japanese automaker says that it commissioned the new vehicle called ‘i-Tril’ from its French design studio in collaboration with the company’s ED² design studio in Nice based on research on the company’s younger demographic. expand full story

At the Prius Challenge event in Sonoma California today, Toyota unveiled today its second generation autonomous vehicles platform developed by the Toyota Research Institute (TRI).

While Toyota demoed an interesting system, it certainly has to be one of the most ridiculous-looking self-driving platforms we have seen so far. If you look closely, you can actually see the Lexus LS 600hL underneath all those lidar sensors. expand full story

Shortly after Toyota unveiled a new solar roof option for the 2017 Prius Prime, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the Tesla Model 3 will “probably” also have a solar roof option.

Now we learn that Panasonic, a current solar cell and battery cell supplier for Tesla, is releasing a  new solar product designed for automotive applications, which will first be used in Toyota’s solar roof option for the Prius. expand full story

Automakers will be going to Geneva in the next two weeks for the 87th Geneva International Motor Show. A few of them have announced that they will bring new electric vehicle concepts to the trade show. expand full story

Today, Toyota announced changes in executives’ areas of responsibility, as well as personnel changes at the sub-executive managerial level. The most important change by far is the appointment of Akio Toyoda, the company’s CEO and grandson of founder Kiichiro Toyoda, as President of a new ‘EV Business Planning’ department. expand full story