Toyota confirmed plans to launch solid-state EV batteries with 10-minute fast charging and up to 750 miles (1,200 km) WLTP range to close the gap with Tesla. However, with the new EV battery tech still a few years out, Toyota could fall further behind.
Toyota has been teasing solid-state EV battery tech for several years now. After discovering a "technological breakthrough" in June, Toyota said it was accelerating development.
In October, Toyota and Japanese oil giant Idemitsu Kosan announced they would develop and build solid-state EV batteries. The batteries are expected to begin rolling out in 2027, with mass production following.
Vikram Gulati, head of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, confirmed the plans at an investment summit in India. "We will be rolling out our electric vehicles with solid-state batteries in a couple of years from now."
It will power "a vehicle which will be charging in 10 minutes, giving a range of 1,200 km (750 miles)," Gulati said. According to Toyota''s India boss, the battery will also have a "very good" life expectancy.
The move comes as India looks to become a global force in the transition to EVs. Electric cars made up about 2% of overall vehicle sales in India last year, but the nation aims to reach 30% by 2030. Annual EV sales could hit 10 million by the end of the decade, according to India''s road transport minister.
The company claims its new tech will offer 10-minute fast charging and significantly more range.
Although Toyota claims its solid-state batteries could be a "potential game-changer for BEVs," they are not expected to launch until 2027 (at the earliest).
Ahead of its solid-state batteries, Toyota plans to launch other next-gen EV battery tech. In 2026, Toyota aims to launch a Performance lithium-ion battery that offers 20% more range (~500 mi) than its current bZ4X with 20-minute fast charging.
A Popularisation battery is due out the following year. The lithium iron phosphate battery is designed to lower costs by around 40% compared to the bZ4X. Toyota revealed the 2024 bZ4X will start at $43,070 with up to 252 miles EPA range in the US.
Although Toyota is (again) promising its solid-state EV battery will improve range and charging while lowering costs, we''ve heard this story several times before.
Toyota''s first solid-state battery-powered EV was due out in 2021, then it was in 2022. We still have yet to see the technology, and it''s already 2024. Now, Toyota plans to introduce them in 2027/2028, with mass production coming after 2030.
How about just ignoring Toyota''s (& every other manufacturer''s) marketing until they actually deliver?
By then, several companies will have already rolled out the tech. Volkswagen, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, and others are also working to release solid-state battery tech.
VW''s PowerCo battery unit recently said QuantumScape''s solid-state battery could drive 500,000 km (311,000 miles) with almost no range loss.
Source: Reuters
Peter Johnson is covering the auto industry’s step-by-step transformation to electric vehicles. He is an experienced investor, financial writer, and EV enthusiast. His enthusiasm for electric vehicles, primarily Tesla, is a significant reason he pursued a career in investments. If he isn’t telling you about his latest 10K findings, you can find him enjoying the outdoors or exercising
Research and development have never turned a profit. As a result, R&D is often one of the first things to get axed when bean counters make budget cuts. However, Toyota has always been more invested in long-term planning than in frantically racing from quarter to quarter. This is why its cars are some of the most reliable in existence.
This long-term-based approach to business is why Toyota is one of the biggest car companies in the world. Indeed, Toyota has positioned itself in a truly fortunate place. The Japanese automaker has such high profits that it can spend billions of dollars on projects that may not break even for several years, like hydrogen and solid-state batteries
In order to give you the most up-to-date and accurate information possible, the data used to compile this article was sourced from various manufacturer websites and other authoritative sources.
When Koji Sato succeeded Akio Toyoda as president and CEO, many people expected him to end Toyota''s long-running hydrogen initiative. The popular story was that hydrogen had been outgoing president Toyoda''s passion project. Toyoda allegedly quashed any BEV initiatives during his entire tenure, instead pouring countless millions of dollars into his beloved hydrogen cars. And indeed, Toyota released its first EV (the bZ4X) right after Toyoda''s exit.
Of course, it''s folly to believe that Toyota would have slapped together an EV design in just a few months and then and then rushed it to production. Other companies have been known to use their customers as unwitting beta testers for their hasty new designs. (This often leads to bankruptcy and the occasional bailout.) Of course, Toyota has never done that. But for those who wanted to believe the simple, digestible story that Toyoda personally hated EVs and Sato would finally end this hydrogen nonsense, the bZ4X was the proof they needed. However, Sato has affirmed that Toyota will still pursue hydrogen fuel cells. The company''s subsequent actions confirm that.
One of hydrogen''s biggest advantages over EVs is that one can refuel the car about as quickly as filling a tank of gasoline. However, Toyota is striving to make this even easier. Instead of going to a hydrogen station to pump fuel into the car, Toyota has proposed making small cartridges that one simply plugs into the vehicle''s fuel inlet. They operate similarly to those finger-sized compressed air cartridges that some cyclists use to refill their tires on the road.
If anyone doubted Toyota''s continued commitment to hydrogen after Sato took the reins, the company is renaming its California facility from "Toyota Motors of North America Research and Development" to "North American Hydrogen Headquarters" (H2HQ for short). This rebranding comes with the usual round of expansions and renovations. Most notably, Toyota is making the suburban Los Angeles complex independent of the power grid. To this end, Toyota is building a micro-grid powered by solar, battery storage, and (of course) hydrogen fuel cells.
Toyota has entered into an unlikely partnership with BMW to further the hydrogen cause. Of course, the two companies had already collaborated on the resurrected Supra. But this alliance goes a lot deeper than a coupe. Toyota and BMW have announced grand plans to make the world a better place for hydrogen. They aren''t merely building fuel cells, but pushing for a worldwide hydrogen infrastructure to support them. Of course, they haven''t given any specifics about how they would create a worldwide hydrogen network out of nearly nothing. Nevertheless, the intentions and the money are there.
Toyota''s EV trajectory has sometimes confounded onlookers. The company briefly flirted with all-electric vehicles with a battery-powered variant of the Rav4, which it sold for a few years at the turn of the millennium and again from 2012 to 2014. Instead, Toyota decided that lithium-ion batteries were not good enough. It has instead been researching solid-state batteries, which theoretically would make the current generation of lithium-ion EV batteries look as outdated as the lead-acid batteries that powered General Motors'' EV1. Toyota has apparently chosen to skip competing with the current generation of EVs and instead preemptively outdo the next.
Toyota made its first inroads into solid-state batteries in 2012. At the time, the driving public was barely warming up to the notion of EVs in general. (The first Tesla Roadster had been released only four years earlier.) The concept of solid-state EV batteries seemed as wacky in 2012 as hybrid cars did before the Prius. But in recent years, the rest of the automotive industry has started taking an interest in SSBs. However, Toyota still has over a decade of research and development that no other automaker has.
Of course, Toyota has been relatively quiet about any solid-state developments. It''s tempting to speculate that the company has nothing to show after all these years. However, Toyota has already spent literal billions of dollars on an SSB factory in North Carolina. It looks like Toyota''s SSB partnerships with companies like Panasonic and Idemitsu (a Japanese petroleum producer) will finally come to fruition. Toyota has been promising to have SSBs ready for the public by "2027 or 2028." The construction of a factory strongly suggests that SSBs will not be postponed.s
With both solid-state batteries and hydrogen, Toyota is essentially ignoring the present and betting on the future. With solid-state batteries, the technology to make them successfully power cars does not exist yet— or at least, such magical "wonder batteries" can only be lovingly crafted one at a time in a laboratory. In the case of hydrogen, the required technology already works, but the world isn''t ready. One can get gasoline in every town, but not hydrogen.
But, aside from those who live in the few cities that have hydrogen fueling stations, most people can''t purchase hydrogen unless they order it from a scientific supplier. However, Toyota is currently one of the biggest car sellers on earth. It can afford to prepare for the future.
Of course, many people think hydrogen cars will never take off. However, hydrogen may prove a natural fit for the trucking industry. For one thing, hydrogen fuel cells are more naturally suited for steady-speed cruising than for fast acceleration. They aren''t very good at providing sudden surges of power when the driver floors the accelerator. (FCEVs have a battery to make up for this.) It should be obvious why this makes them better suited for trucking than for daily commutes.
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