Toyota's Breakthrough in Solid State Battery Technology: Halved Size, Cost, and Weight for Electric Vehicles by 2025

2023-07-04 15:41:09

For a while, they seemed a little helpless with their technology strategy next to Tesla, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Co: The Japanese car giant stuck to its hydrogen car strategy for a long time, while the rest of the car world switched to battery-electric vehicles. Finally, in 2021, it was announced that a total of 15 battery electric vehicles would be introduced worldwide by 2025, including seven “bZ” models.

And this battery strategy should now get a decent push. Like first the Financial Times first reported, the in-house research and development center for CO2 neutrality claims to have achieved a breakthrough in so-called solid state batteries. A new manufacturing process promises to produce powerful batteries that are half the size and cost of traditional batteries in use today.

Size, cost and weight halved

Higher energy density in the same space also means: Significantly more range for the e-car. According to Keiji Kaita, who heads the research center, the size, cost and weight of batteries could be halved. “With both our liquid and solid-state batteries, we are aiming to drastically change the situation that makes current batteries too big, too heavy and too expensive,” says Kaita. “In terms of potential, we’re going to try to halve all those factors.

Solid state batteries refer to a design in which both electrodes, i.e. anode and cathode, are made of solid material. They have long been regarded as the holy grail of the battery world because they promise higher energy density combined with a very long service life and a high level of safety (e.g. in the event of temperature fluctuations). Solid states replace the liquid electrolyte with a solid electrolyte using lithium metal at the anode instead of graphite, which is the current standard in lithium-ion batteries

In addition to Toyota, there are a number of car companies working on Solid State. Volkswagen, for example, has invested in the listed tech scale-up QuantumScape, which plans to start producing its first solid states as early as 2023. CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer from China, also recently announced a breakthrough in energy density.

World’s largest battery manufacturer CATL announces breakthrough in energy density

First batteries from 2025 in hybrid cars

At Toyota it will take longer. A commercialized version of the new batteries is not expected to be installed in hybrid cars until 2025 at the earliest and then in pure electric cars in 2027. These should then bring a range of 1,200 kilometers for an electric car. Even better: Toyota promises that such a car could be charged in ten minutes.

Toyota’s announcement is remarkable because it is not about the principle of the solid state battery itself, but about a breakthrough in the production process. This should finally solve the problem of battery life. “There are often breakthroughs in the prototype phase, but then it is difficult to disseminate them. If it’s a real breakthrough, it could be a game changer – the holy grail of battery vehicles, so to speak,” said David Bailey, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Birmingham. to the British Guardian.

It will also be interesting to see how these new batteries affect the price of e-cars. Batteries are still the biggest cost driver today, which is why e-cars are usually significantly more expensive than comparable combustion engines. If Toyota manages to halve the cost of the batteries, then Toyota could make a real declaration of war on the market.