After 6 years of losses nearing $260 million dollars, Elon Musk and Tesla Motors may have finally turned the corner. Following last month’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) that raised $226 million, it now appears that Tesla has struck a deal with the mighty Toyota.

You may recall our excitement back in May, when we reported on Toyota’s plan to create a hybrid version of the current RAV4 sport utility vehicle. We estimated the price of the hybrid RAV-4 to be around $30,000 and fuel economy to come in somewhere around 32-35 mpg.

In comparison, the current RAV4 goes for a baseline price of around $21,500 with about 22/28 mpg. Toyota raved that a hybridized RAV4 could be available as early as 2012, but no news has been issued since to indicate if the hybrid-electric is still on schedule or even still in the works.

So if there has been no news, why bring up a green RAV4 again? Well, because Toyota just announced a partnership with Tesla to build an All Electric RAV4.

Typically, we don’t cover electric SUVs much on HybridSUV.com, but this new partnership makes me wonder if the Hybrid RAV4 will still be developed in light of this recent announcement. Especially since both versions of greener RAV4’s are scheduled to be coming in 2012.

For you die hard hybrids who haven’t been following the “electric company”, Tesla is an up and coming car manufacturer based in sunny Palo Alto, California. They opened their doors in 2003 and have less than seven years experience. Up until last month, they have been a privately owned company, but on June 29th, 2010 they made their Initial Public Offering on the NASDAQ.  As of the time of this writing, their current share price is about $21.

The partnership does create some interesting questions, like what kind of fuel economy the combined forces of Tesla and Toyota could create in a small SUV. The Tesla Roadster manages around 250 miles (320 km) per charge, at a cost of $101,500. Tesla’s upcoming Model S should get 160 miles per charge and ring up at around $50,000.

Based on these prices and mileage estimates, my guess is that an electric version of a RAV4 could come in near $40,000 (before electric vehicle tax credits) and reach 100 miles per charge. Compare that to the estimated cost of a hybrid RAV4 at $30,000 with no hybrid tax credits, and buyers would have a really tough decision to make.

Even though Toyota plans to invest $50 million in Tesla, I’m doubting we will see any electric RAV4’s in 2012. Yes, a prototype is already being tested and I know Toyota built some electric RAV4 sport utes in the 90’s, but less than 2 years? My guess is 2013 at the earliest, and even then in very limited numbers. In either case, I’m crossing my fingers that the hybrid version arrives first.