Marko Hanželic
Toyota has recently joined forces with a Japanese oil products producer Idemitsu Kosan for the development and production of solid state batteries for future electric vehicles and although many thought that this could lead to widespread use of semiconductor cells, that probably won't happen. At least not at first.
The car manufacturer is cooperating with Idemitsu Kosan divided into three phases. In the first phase, they will improve the quality, costs and delivery times of sulfide solid electrolytes, and in the second phase, they will build a large pilot plant for the production of new batteries. Toyota expects it to be up to in 2027-2028 achieved commercialization and then began mass production.
But this one will "mass production" quite limited at the beginning. Newspaper toyota times revealed that Toyota and Idemitsu Kosan will aim to increase capacity to only a few thousand tons per year, which will be sufficient for "a few tens of thousands of vehicles" za leto 2030 and later.
It is not yet known which vehicles it will be First produced and sold by Toyota with solid-state batteries, but considering that the capacities will be quite limited, it is reasonable to assume that it will be high class models with small batch production.
Idemitsu has been conducting research and development of solid-state batteries since 2001, and Toyota since 2006. The companies are joined forces for the first time in researching technologies in 2013, and in 2020 they created the first prototype vehicle.
They will in the near future Toyota electric vehicles used innovative new prismatic battery cells that are said to increase range and reduce weight. The Japanese brand will also use "gigacasting" technology in the production of its electric vehicles and presented this technology and prismatic cells with a surprising concept Lexus LF-ZC at the recent Japan Mobility Fair in Tokyo.
