ColdFusion - Toyota Reveals Solid-State Battery Prototype Car (Update)

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Starting point is 00:01:16 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. 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.

Starting point is 00:01:50 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 kilometers. Just by replacing the liquid electrolytes used in current batteries with solid-mars, 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.

Starting point is 00:02:27 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. Right 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.

Starting point is 00:03:02 And in the pipeline of development, this makes sense. Design the battery in the lab, and then tested 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

Starting point is 00:03:34 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. Okay, so the battery is here. It seemingly works, but... Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research.

Starting point is 00:04:17 Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result?

Starting point is 00:04:46 Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. 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,

Starting point is 00:05:12 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 its 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,

Starting point is 00:05:38 but it seems that they've missed the very start of the electric wave. Toyota already were 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.

Starting point is 00:06:03 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 gigawatt 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,

Starting point is 00:06:43 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.

Starting point is 00:07:20 Granted though, the purpose was just for pulling metrics for battery performance, for future improvements. For the consumers' 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. And now a quick word from today's sponsor, APSumo.

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ColdFusion - Toyota Reveals Solid-State Battery Prototype Car (Update)

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