Toyota sells some of its Tesla shares

Toyota Motors invested $50 million in Tesla Motors back in May of 2010, shortly before the American automaker’s initial public offering. At the time, Toyota said that the investment would give it about a 2.5% stake in Tesla, but the size of its current stake is unclear. However, now it seems as though the Japanese automaker has sold some of these shares.

Tesla’s shares closed at $235.39 on Thursday, up almost 2% and significantly higher than the IPO price of $17 per share back in June of 2010. The California-based automaker has been supplying batteries and motors for Toyota’s RAV4 electric SUVs that went on sale in 2012, but that arrangement is set to end this year after Toyota sold just 2,000 of the vehicles. Elon Musk has said that could very well sign a new deal with Toyota over the next 2 to 3 years.

While Toyota didn’t disclose the time of the dale, or how much was sold, spokesman Ryo Sakai said, adding that the sale resulted from Toyota’s regular review of its investments, said that the company will “continue to have good relations with Tesla,” according to Reuters.