Brief introduction of LFP vs NMC battery chemistries

Tesla has been selling a lot with LFP cells. It still looks like the AWD model of bZ4X for North America will use LFP cells too. If is the case and Toyota is indeed quietly diversifying, it could put quite a twist on the supposed binary tepid market.

 

Will it arrive before or after the wheels are fixed?

They might be using Toshiba SCiBs in Europe.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/toshiba-s-new-li-ion-battery-is-key-to-toyota-s-ev-plans-promises-to-be-indestructible-179595.html
Toyota's New e-SUV Comes Equipped with Toshiba's LTO Battery Tech
These are LTO's, lithium titanium oxide anodes. They might be using LFP cathodes. The batteries don't have the LFP advantage of lower cost.

 

If Toyota were using LTO cells you could charge and discharge at 10C even down to -50℃ and up to +60℃ and would last for 25,000 cycles at 100% DoD. Yes these are supercells: https://batterytalks.com/products/scib-toshiba-prismatic-2-4v-20ah-cells

But.... That would be weird. SCiB cells have a nominal voltage of 2.4V so 48 Wh per cell if using 20 Ah cells as it says in the article. That means they would need 10 modules of 149 cells to get to 71.4 kWh for a 355V pack. At 515g/cell that would be a 767 kg (1,692 lbs) battery (cell weight only without packaging and electronics) or 40% of the total weight of the bZ4X. Oh and they are horrifyingly expensive. The European site says the 71.4 kWh battery pack has 96 cells (Specification sheet 2022 bZ4X). Needless to say I have my doubts.