Toyota might come out with game-changing EV battery

Toyota intends to be the first company to bring out the next generation of battery technology in the mass market electric car segment.

The Japanese carmaker is currently working out the unsolved issues to make the battery mass production ready. The new battery is expected to power vehicles that will run more than 2 lakh km. Toyota chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada said that it is not yet clear how long an electric battery must last, but he did comment that 3 years is a too short of a lifespan for the same.

The next-gen batteries will be solid-state devices. They are claimed to offer higher capacity and are safer than the current lithium-ion batteries. The solid-state battery replaces the liquid or gel electrolyte of the lithium-ion with a solid material. It is also expected to offer a significantly better storage capacity. These batteries also eliminate the need for close layering and use of electric conductors in individual cells. This in turn will reduce the size as well as cost while improving the packing efficiency of the batteries in the car.

The higher capacity battery will help the next crop of electric vehicles in two ways - improve the vehicle range and reduce the use of lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel or aluminium. Uchiyamada also said that while other companies are going all-electric, Toyota thinks that in the near future, both hydrogen cell and electric cars can co-exist and be a good alternate to the conventionally powered cars.

Source - Economic Times