Driving range and recharge times to improve “drastically.”
According to a Japanese daily, Toyota is set to introduce a game-changing electric vehicle come 2022. While EVs themselves are not new anymore, it’s the battery pack powering the car that’s the headliner: A ‘solid state’ battery setup that promises to improve driving range and shorten charging times, addressing the two biggest bugbears in electric mobility.
These solid-state batteries are a recently developed technology utilising solid electrolytes rather than liquid ones, which increase volumetric energy density to levels far superior than conventional lithium-ion solutions. It’s claimed by experts that advanced solid-state batteries would be able to reduce charging times significantly (some say to less than an hour), which represents a vast improvement over existing battery technology, while using conventional charging equipment. Studies report that solid-state batteries can hold more than three times the charge that lithium-ion units of the same capacity can hold, and are purported to have a longer useful life.
While the Japanese automotive goliath won’t confirm that it has such an EV in the works, a spokesperson told Autocar that the research into solid-state batteries was ongoing.
“It is considered that all-solid batteries are the most close to the level of practical application. We are working on research and development, including the production engineering of all-solid batteries to commercialise them by the early 2020s. These various next-generation batteries have high potential, however they have some challenges and have not reached the level of the current liquid batteries. They are at the stage where they could prove performance in principle in the laboratory, and we need a breakthrough for practical use. Therefore, we need to further research and development for these batteries.” – Toyota spokesperson
Toyota’s push toward electric mobility was cemented last year when they opened a dedicated electric vehicle division. Since then, the company has reported that progress into solid state batteries is slowly chugging along, with the last update revealing that they are yet to replicate the successes these batteries have displayed in the lab out in the real world.
Due 2020 is Toyota’s first large-scale battery-electric vehicle, which will pack a 300km range on a single charge. That car will be powered by conventional lithium-ion batteries, and will build credibility in Toyota’s electric vehicle technology ahead of the introduction of its solid-state battery electric vehicle in 2022.
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