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Hi, welcome to another episode of Coldfusion where I cover
anything in science, technology, business or history.
Rumours of Toyota revealing a prototype vehicle with a solid-state
battery first dropped in late 2020.
In January of 2021, I did an episode on Toyota's
plans to unveil a prototype car later in the year.
Today we'll discuss the event.
Is it hype or has Toyota done something special here?
In reality, it's a bit of both.
Let's take a look.
You are watching 12 Fusion TV.
So to quickly recap, the reason that a lot of
people are looking forward to solid-state batteries are because of
the advantages that they hold above current technology.
Imagine an electric car battery that provides more than 300
miles or 400 kilometres of range, charges in 10 minutes,
requires no bulky heating or cooling systems, maintains 80% of
its charge capacity over 800 cycles.
That's about 240,000 miles or 380,000 kilometres.
Just by replacing the liquid electrolytes used in current batteries
with solid material, it opens the door for much better
battery technology.
These kind of batteries are called solid-state batteries, and they're
far less flammable, which allows them to run in a
wider temperature window.
There's also a lower risk of thermal runaway, leading to
a spontaneous combustion.
Energy density also gets a boost, which could lead to
lighter vehicles with longer range.
All of this is the promise of solid-state car batteries.
It's the Holy Grail that automakers and manufacturers have been
racing to find.
Late last year, Toyota announced that it would have a
running prototype.
So we waited, and now it's finally arrived.
In September, Toyota showed off a working version of their
prototype on their YouTube channel.
The video is only 12 seconds long and we don't
have much to go by.
But reportedly the aim was to test the battery and
collect performance data.
And in the pipeline of development, this makes sense.
Design the battery in the lab and then test it
out in the real world by installing it into a
driving prototype.
If Toyota isn't pulling at Trevor Milton and this car
is indeed running and doing what they claim it actually
would be notable because this would be one of the
first times, if not the first time ever that we've
seen a solid-state battery running in a car.
For context, other manufacturers are very far behind.
BMW wants solid-state battery prototypes by 2025, and Mercedes is
also working on one, but it's far from ready.
So seeing a solid-state battery in operation is a treat.
Toyota, which is the world's second largest automaker, do have
the track record to back up the video.
People do forget that they released the first commercially successful
fuel battery hybrid car all the way back in 1997.
OK, so the battery is here.
It seemingly works, but will it ever be able to
make it to mass production?
And that's another question.
Chief Technology Officer Masahiko Maida has stated that the company's
solid-state batteries will be in production in three years.
Commenting on the unveiling, he continues.
Quote.
We're focusing on safety, long service life and a high
level quality to produce good, low cost and high performance
batteries.
What Toyota values most is to develop batteries that it's
consumers can use with Peace of Mind.
End Quote.
The aim is to put the battery in hybrids before
using it in a full EV.
The thinking goes that hybrids don't fully rely on the
battery, just in case there's an issue.
So Toyota may be talking a big game, but it
seems that they've missed the very start of the electric
wave.
Toyota already we're heading full steam in the direction of
hydrogen technology.
No, not the Trevor Milton kind of hydrogen technology, but
the real kind.
They've doubled down on developing hydrogen tech over the past
decade, but unfortunately for them, electric cars seem to be
taking off quicker than they expected, and that seems to
be the way forward for now.
Toyota didn't want to miss out on this wave, so
they've announced that they're investing $13.6 billion into battery technology
over the next nine years.
This massive sum includes funds for research, development, and production
equipment.
The firm wants to get 200 GW hours of battery
capacity by the end of the decade.
This battery supply includes, of course, the new solid-state batteries.
The Japanese firm wants to have 10 electric car nameplates
by 2025, while reducing battery costs by 30% while also
increasing efficiency by the same amount.
So I think Toyota may have dragged their feet in
the electric world for just a bit too long.
But they're a pretty innovative automaker for one, being of
the traditional era anyway.
Maybe they'll have no problems catching up to the rest.
But As for now, Toyota is well behind many other
car manufacturers when it comes to electric car production.
They've only just announced their first mass produced electric car
a couple of weeks ago, which is said to be
coming into production in 2023.
Meanwhile, Ford, Jaguar, Kia, Audi, Porsche and many others have
beaten them to the punch.
So very little is known about the specific batteries showcased
in the demonstration.
I wouldn't go as far as to call the whole
thing hype, but the demo still leaves much to be
desired.
Granted, though, the purpose was just for pulling metrics for
battery performance for future improvements.
For the consumer's sake, I do hope that Toyota is
truly serious about this.
Releasing an affordable, reliable solid-state battery would have large implications
not just for the automotive industry, but for the whole
transport industry and the technology world as a whole.
As I said in the previous episode about this, I
still do think that cost will remain the biggest barrier
for them.
So if you want more background on the solid-state story,
you can watch the previous episode on the Toyota battery
tech.
I'll leave it in the description below.
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Links will be in the description, so thanks for watching.
My name is Tagogo and you've been watching Cold Fusion.
If you want to listen to the podcast versions of
these episodes, I'll leave a link to them below.
OK, so I'll see you again soon for the next
episode.
Cheers guys.
Have a good one.
Cold Fusion.
It's new thinking.