Toyota Environmental status report 2012 - 21 new hybrids, 5x stronger lion batteries and more.

Toyota Prototypes All-solid-state Battery With 5x Higher Output Density -- Tech-On!

 

Yes, solid electrolyte. Here is more info.

 

Impressive! 28V out of that little thing. I wonder what's the Ah rating of it.

 

From the same site, they have more info about the fuel cell improvements as well.

Because of its small size, the fuel cell stack can be installed under a front seat of a vehicle. And the booster converter can be placed between the driver's seat and the front passenger seat.​

Source

 

But the inverse would be true, if power density had been the case. The battery will accept a charge faster. Not only could that mean faster charging with less strain on the battery. It would mean more efficient regen braking. This is true for the iMiEV. While its pack is 25% smaller than the Leaf's, its range is only about 13% less. Weight plays a role, but the more efficient regen helps.

 

Today, the choices are:

• ICE - only carries unreacted fuel. The oxidizer comes from air and after toxic compounds are reduced, the reacted products are dumped overboard. Vehicle conversion efficiency ~33% but often is less with significant warm-up, inefficiencies.
• Air-fuel batteries - carries unreacted fuel (usually metal) and reacted products. Oxidizer comes from air and the vehicle conversion efficiency is over 66% so less fuel is needed but this is offset by the growing weight of reacted products.
• Hydrogen fuel batteries - carries unreacted fuel, oxidizer comes from air and the reacted products are dumped overboard. Vehicle conversion efficiency is over 66%. But they remain intractably expensive and sensitive to thermal challenges.
  • hydrogen is wretched stuff to store and handle
  • fuel cell catalysts and electrodes can be poisoned

Of the different battery technologies, the air-fuel batteries appear to be more practical in the short term. Hydrogen fuel-cell batteries will take a long time to become practical power sources . . . there are too many hard technical problems that ALL have to be solved. As for engines, Carnot pretty well limits what we are likely to see with non-toxic, exhaust.

Hybrid-electrics have the ability to mitigate the worst aspects of the ICE. This is the likely path that compared to the others can be reasonably implemented to extend fuel efficiency in the near-term. Today's low-hanging fruit for the ICE is warm-up cost and Toyota has shown exceptional skill in focusing on this problem.

To solve the ICE warm-up problem, peak energy density is less important than peak power. It only needs adequate energy to handle the ICE warm-up costs and plug-in for just the warm-up cycle load.

Bob Wilson

 

Toyota's FCHV-adv can be started as low as -30 deg C.

I don't know the exact catalysts and electrodes used but I don't see how it would be worse than a huge battery pack (BEV) or a catalytic converter.

 

That is actually a little concerning for a few of us if those numbers don't improve. While -30c is rare in Minnesota, it is not unheard of.
With my BEV's I have the car plugged in overnight, so it is not an issue.
I am guessing they will improve those numbers for the northern states and Canada. Or at least come up with an alternative heating/starting system.

 

I thought the issue was with the exhaust too. Can't have water freeze up the pipe. Guess it's an easy fix with some heating wire. Same thing for the stack. The system would have to charge up the traction battery to power the heating elements for start up, or even have a larger pack though.

 

Well, can the Leaf or Tesla EVs operate or start in -30 deg C?

 

If plugged in, they should. If out an about during the dayyou probably want to be sure to start up before the temp drops.

The titanate lithium batteries in the iMiEV are good down to -30.

Seeing as now a FCV is dependent on a battery for power buffering, I hope they use one that can operate at the same conditions as the stack.

 

Thanks, that looks like a lithium polymer battery, and confirms the 5x is power output for a given size (w/L), not energy. There are gains in energy too, but I can't tell how much, probably because toyota is not ready to release the information.

Lots of cool new battery technology possibilities for plug-ins. This one looks especially helpful for small packaging in phevs.

 

Its not much of a problem. There won't be a hydrogen filling structure in Minnesota for a long time.

It seems if long range and cold weather handling is needed, phev is the most likely solution

 

Perhaps, if you only have one car. In two car households, that will be less of an issue. As for cold weather handling, my BEV handled better in the MN winters than my Prius and as well as my Volt.
We do have a PHEV as our secondary vehicle.

 

You see my qualifiers up above. Long range and cold weather. In very cold weather range is going to drop in a BEV, and its likely FCV will also have low penetration and few refueling stations. At least in the near term - 2025. If you don't need the long range part, then BEVs may work.

 

spwolf already provided the link to 5x energy density breakthrough. It was possible because they are made of thin sheets.

Now, they have 5x the power density. This means they managed to output about the same power as regular lithium battery, per cell. Since these solid lithium cells are so thin, the result is 5x power for the same volume.

The only question is whether if both of these breakthroughs are for the same battery. It is possible they are for two different batteries.