Toyota was one of the pioneers of hybrid vehicle technology around the world and the company's technology was so good that it was licensed to other carmakers for use in their hybrids. While Toyota sells boatloads of Prius' around the world, other makers are hard at work on battery and EV tech that is making its way to the public.

Toyota made an announcement in May of this year that it be investing $50M into Tesla Motors and that the two would work together to produce electric vehicles at the NUMMI plant. The first fruits of that joint venture have been announced with Autoblog Green reporting that Toyota and Tesla had inked a $60M deal that will see Tesla provide the components needed for the RAV4 electric vehicle.

The deal surfaced in a Toyota regulatory filing this month that showed Tesla will be developing the battery, power electronics module, electric motor, gearbox, and software for the Toyota RAV4 EV. The first prototype of the electric RAV4 will be seen at the LA Auto show and the vehicle isn’t expected to be commercially available until 2012. Hard specs on the RAV4 EV and the electric drive components being developed for the car are not available at this time