TOYOTA PROMISES A SOLID BATTERY WITH A RANGE OF 1,200 KM WITH A 10 MINUTE CHARGING TIME

By Piero Facchin

On July 3, automaker Toyota said it had simplified the production of the material used to make solid-state batteries, and hailed the discovery as a significant leap forward that could dramatically reduce charging times and increase the range. “For our liquid and solid-state batteries, we aim to radically change the situation where current batteries are too big, too heavy and very expensive. In terms of potential, we’ll be aiming to halve all these factors,” said Keiji Kaita, President of Toyota’s Research and Development Center for Carbon Neutrality.

He added that his company had developed ways of making batteries more sustainable and believed it could now make a solid-state battery with a range of 1,200 km (745 miles), which could be recharged in 10 minutes or less, and would be easier to manufacture than a conventional lithium-ion battery.

Nevertheless, we’d like to know some specifics, details like energy density, charge and discharge rates, the number of possible charge cycles, how the batteries work at cold temperatures, what they’re made of, and so on. Let’s just say we have reason to be skeptical about announcements like this. After all, companies like QuantumScape have been making similar promises for almost a decade, and we’re still waiting for them to start producing their batteries.

Toyota still has modest targets for its battery-electric cars. It plans to manufacture 3 million of them annually by 2030, with solid-state batteries accounting for half of this figure. Tesla has just announced that it produced nearly half a million cars in the last quarter alone. BYD is also on track to produce up to 3 million BEVs and EVs by 2023.

It remains to be seen if, and when, these batteries will actually be on the market for the general public.