Toyota's chief executive confirmed last week that electric versions of the Scion iQ and the Toyota RAV4 will enter the production cycle in 2012. The two electric vehicles have been promised for a couple of years, so hitting the delivery dates on time is good news. The bad news is how tentative the production numbers will be.

General Motors confirmed yesterday it will make an all-electric minicar called the Chevy Spark, to debut in 2013. While more product choice of electric cars is a positive step for the market, EV advocates worry that another small limited-range and potentially underpowered electric car will fuel negative stereotypes about electric vehicles. They wonder why the Spark was selected as the company's first all-electric model since the ill-fated EV1, when GM is capable of producing a much more appealing and exciting electric vehicle.

A Toyota electric car called the TMG EV P001 last week set a new lap record for EVs of 7 minutes, 48 seconds around the mighty 13-mile Nürburgring race course in Germany. But no engineer from Toyota Motor Corporation, the Japanese company which builds the Corolla and the Prius, had anything to do with the TMG EV P001.

A closer look at Toyota's limited ambitions for the new RAV4 EV reveal a remarkable similarity to its aims for the first-generation version of the crossover—namely, satisfying the California Air Resources Board's Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate. “Toyota is serious about its electric vehicle program,” said Jay Friedland, legislative director of Plug In America, to PluginCars.com. “But at this point, its electric vehicle program is seriously limited.”

Toyota has refuted an earlier report that its forthcoming Rav4 EV will be a fleet-only release, clarifying that it will actually be sub-brand Scion's iQ EV that will be available only to private businesses and car-sharing programs. Additionally, the car giant has finally disclosed some of the terms of the its agreement with Tesla to co-develop and manufacture parts for the Rav4 EV, which is scheduled for release in United States in 2012.