Toyota to unveil solid-state battery EV prototype soon.
Toyota is planning to produce the first electric car with a solid-state battery and its first working prototype is planned for 2021, with a production car going on sale sometime in the early 2020’s according to a report by Nikkei recently.
As far back as December 2017 Toyota Motor engineers agreed with Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp. to jointly study development of high-performance batteries that can jumpstart EV demand.
Toyota’s entrance into EVs comes a month after the increased demand for electrification, autonomous driving, and connectivity is making headlines globally, Toyota said it faces a “now or never” competition “about surviving or dying” in the new era.
There is also a technology company in America that has announced it is now producing 20 amp-hour (Ah) solid-state batteries for car companies to use.
Solid-state batteries are an important next-step for electric vehicles (EVs), improving safety, range, weight, and charging times when compared to more conventional lithium-ion batteries currently used.
The Colorado-based company Solid Power which enjoys financial backing from the BMW Group and Ford Motor says it is making the 20Ah, multi-layer solid-state batteries for EVs, as it works towards developing large-format manufacturing processes.
“The technology is a potential cure-all for the drawbacks facing electric vehicles that run on conventional lithium-ion batteries, including the relatively short distance traveled on a single charge as well as charging times. Toyota plans to be the first company to sell an electric vehicle equipped with a solid-state battery. The world’s largest automaker will also unveil a prototype next year,” states the report from Nikkei.
Toyota even built a working solid-state battery-powered prototype vehicle, which it was going to debut at the Tokyo Olympic Games if the event hadn’t been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, a Volkswagen Group backed company QuantumScape has reported that its solid-state batteries would be ready for production by 2024, claiming the tech will be suitable for environmental conditions down to -30 degrees Celsius which is far lower than its competitors.
With a number of governments around the world planning to ban sales of vehicles powered solely by internal combustion engines by 2030, the onslaught of announcements regarding solid-state batteries suggests electrified vehicles could look a lot different by the end of this decade.
Another company working on bringing solid-state batteries to the market is Samsung. On March this year it was announced that researchers from the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) and the Samsung R&D Institute Japan (SRJ) presented a study on high-performance, long-lasting all-solid-state batteries to Nature Energy, one of the world’s leading scientific journals.
Compared to widely used lithium-ion batteries, which utilize liquid electrolytes, all-solid-state batteries support greater energy density, which opens the door for larger capacities, and utilize solid electrolytes, which are demonstrably safer. However, the lithium metal anodes that are frequently used in all-solid-state batteries, are prone to trigger the growth of dendrites1 which can produce undesirable side effects that reduce a battery’s lifespan and safety.
