Featured Finally! Toyota is investing in large scale battery plans

Whatever the many reasons Toyota has taken so long to make this announcement... And yes it's just a bunch of promises, it's still a big step forward for leadership that have been a stick in the mud when it comes to transitioning to all electric vehicles

I'm sure we're all a little bit relieved that they are no longer gonna be anti-electric fossil fools claiming hybrid cars are superior to all-electric. It took a long time for them to accept that the future market requires major investments in all electric, not just resting on their already established hybrids:
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TOKYO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said on Tuesday it expected to spend more than $13.5 billion by 2030 to develop batteries and its battery supply system, in a bid to take a lead in the key automotive technology over the next decade.

The world's largest automaker by volume, which pioneered hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles with the popular Prius, is moving rapidly to deliver its first all-electric line-up next year.

Considered a leader in developing batteries for electric vehicles, Toyota said it aimed to slash the cost of its batteries by 30% or more by working on the materials used and the way the cells are structured.

"Then, for the vehicle, we aim to improve power consumption, which is an indicator of the amount of electricity used per kilometer, by 30%, starting with the Toyota bZ4X," Chief Technology Officer Masahiko Maeda told a briefing, referring to an upcoming compact SUV model.

The company is also the front runner to mass produce solid-state batteries - a potential game changer for automakers because they are more energy dense, charge faster and are less prone to catching fire. If developed successfully, they could replace liquid lithium-ion batteries.

While it was still struggling with the short service life of these cells, Maeda said there was no change in Toyota's target to begin manufacturing solid-state batteries by the mid 2020s.

"We are still searching for the best materials to use," he said.

Efforts to mass produce solid-state batteries have stumbled as they are expensive to manufacture and are prone to crack when they expand and contract during use.

Toyota also planned to use solid-state batteries in hybrid electric vehicles such as the Prius, it said.
Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), the world's second-largest automaker, said on Tuesday it might have to spend more to deliver its planned transformation towards autonomous driving and EVs.

The German firm, which plans to invest 150 billion euros ($178 billion) in its business by 2025, has repeatedly said it could fund this transition based on current cash flows.

($1 = 109.8500 yen)
($1 = 0.8429 euros)

Reporting by Tim Kelly; Writing by Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Edmund Blair
Toyota to spend $13.5 bln to develop electric vehicle battery tech by 2030 | Reuters

 

While it's true that not everyone can afford an EV, it's not very expensive compared to the trillions of dollars of long term damage to the planet, as well as human infrastructure due to global air pollution at scale.

We live in a new era where the all time hottest temperatures in the cool Pacific Northwest are now hotter than the hottest all time temperatures in Miami. Last Summer up here in the last few days in June we had a heat wave where nearly a thousand people died of heat stroke in California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. How many more will have to die just because government fossil fool subsidies aren't being turned into EV subsidies?

"More than 10 million people die each year from air pollution, according to a new study — far more than the estimated 2.6 million people who have died from Covid-19 since it was detected more than a year ago. And while Covid is headline news, ordinary air pollution remains a side issue for policy wonks and technocrats." https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-10/air-pollution-kills-far-more-people-than-covid-ever-will

If there was no subsidies for gas, you'd be paying $20 a gallon and suddenly an EV would be way more affordable than a regular car or even a hybrid car. And if fossil fuel subsidies were transferred to EV, the transition to save our planet, as well as save lives could happen very quickly.

 

Excellent point!!! Just because you don't have electricity in your house doesn't mean you can't have a phone or electric personal transportation. As long as you have regular access to a solar panel and its management system...

 

Their audience is definitely their primary investors who have been adamant about Toyota focusing on proprietary technology, rather than just using what everyone is using. Their hydrogen strategy didn't pan out, so now its on to solid state. And while that can seem pretty straightforward in theory, not so much in practice. Or as Elon Musk once explained: designing a prototype is so much easier than mass producing it into a reliable product that in comparison between the two the effort it takes to do the mass production part puts the challenge of the prototype part at near zero effort.

I wonder if this announcement is because they finally figured it out, or just creating more funding pressure so they find a way to figure it out?

 

Curious to know the actual substance behind those claims because any major automaker's PR department can say that and it will be mostly true... And as I previously stated, what seems most unique about Toyota's approach, which they did with the Prius, is design a vehicle that give them as much patent rights/proprietary control as possible. And while all car makers do this to some extent, Toyota has a monomaniacal focus on it.

 

Wild speculation, mostly true, but definitely substantive enough for all auto manufactures to have already planned long term investments of billions...

 

Agreed... Very astute... It'd be so fun to know the back and forth of the executives most involved in the Tesla - Toyota - Panasonic triangle. No doubt there's some really good stories.