Further to the announcement at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show that Toyota and BMW were embarking on joint engine development comes news of a further collaboration – this time in lithium ion batteries.
In a brief statement, the two automotive giants said: “The research project being undertaken under the agreement is focusing on increasing the performance and capacity of lithium-ion battery cells through the use of new combinations of materials for cathodes, anodes and electrolytes.”
Production of batteries is somewhat of a roadblock for automotive companies at the moment. There simply isn’t enough capacity to build batteries in sufficient numbers to meet burgeoning production of electric vehicles.
Lithium-ion batteries are currently the technology favoured by most, so this collaborative project by Toyota and BMW should accelerate development at the time when it’s needed most.
