Toyota Pushes Ahead with Solid-State Battery Production Plans

Toyota says it will have commercially viable solid-state automotive batteries ready for sale within the next three to four years.

Teaming up with Japanese battery specialist Idemitsu Kosan, the automaker will develop and mass-produce solid-state batteries for electric vehicles by 2027 to 2028, Reuters reports. The partnership follows an announcement in June by Toyota that it would introduce the high-performance batteries to improve the driving range and reduce costs of future EVs but starting with its gas hybrid range. It claims to have unearthed a “technological breakthrough” that solves durability problems in solid-state batteries and says it is developing means to put these into mass production.

Solid-state batteries can hold more energy than current liquid electrolyte batteries and automakers and analysts hope they will accelerate transition to BEVs. Toyota claims that a vehicle powered by a solid-state battery could have a range of 745 miles (1,199 km) and a charging time of just 10 minutes.

Toyota CEO Koji Sato told a news conference today: "By bringing together the material development technologies of both companies, Idemitsu's material manufacturing technology and Toyota's battery mass production technology, we will engage in full-scale mass production of all-solid-state batteries."