Electric mobility occupies a growing space in the global automotive market. And the bidding between companies is not just to see who produces the best cars; it also encompasses the development of new technologies to empower them, and batteries occupy a central space. For that reason, Toyota announced a multi-million dollar investment to promote the manufacture and distribution of batteries for electric cars, in order to establish itself as a world leader in the sector in the future.
By 2030, Toyota will allocate $ 13.5 billion to the development of both the batteries themselves, as well as a supply system for them. In addition, the Japanese corporation has made it a goal that its batteries for electric cars are less expensive and, at the same time, more efficient.
As published Reuters, the automaker aims to reduce the cost of its batteries a “30% or more”. To achieve this, Toyota will deepen the study of the materials that are used to manufacture them, and the way in which the cells are structured. But that’s not all, since they also promise to optimize electrical energy consumption per kilometer by 30%.
This was specified by the automaker’s chief technology officer, Masahiko Maeda, when referring to the work they intend to implement from the Toyota bZ4X, their most recent concept of electric SUV.
Toyota is not forgetting solid-state batteries for electric cars
Toyota’s mission with this new multi-million dollar investment also relates to promote the development of solid state batteries. This is not something really new, since the Japanese automaker has been working on this new type of accumulators since at least mid-2017.
However, the potential replacement for lithium-ion batteries still appears to be halfway to becoming a reality. Toyota claims solid state batteries charge faster, are safer and can handle higher energy density; but They have not yet hit the key with the necessary materials so that they provide a useful life similar to that of the accumulators used in current electric cars.
In any case, Masahiko Maeda assures that the mass production of this new type of batteries remains within the plans for the middle of the current decade. We will see if the optimism of the company agrees with the intention of electrifying its entire catalog before 2025.