Toyota's new electric vehicle headed to fleets

As if it wasn't enough of a retrenchment for Toyota to drastically reduce the number of small, all-electric cars it's making, now it turns out lots of them -- if not all -- are destined for fleets and car-sharing.

The Scion "iQ EV is a battery- electric four-seater city commuter car designed for car-sharing programs, in urban and campus environments," Scion says in a statement announcing its arrival.

The iQ EV is the electric variant of Toyota's smallest car. As we previously reported, at one point, Toyota thought it could sell thousands of them. Then it did an about-face and announced it would only import as few as 100. That's because it sees limited range and the high cost of electrics as putting them at a disadvantage to the gas-saving technology that Toyota is master of -- gas-electric hybrids.

As the Scion iQ EV, It's yet to be seen whether they are sold to individual customers.

Toyota has another electric vehicle besides the iQ -- the electric version of the RAV4 developed in conjunction with Tesla Motors, which actually is serious about making money on electric cars. The RAV4, too, is being made in limited numbers.