• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Toyota Working On Solid-State Battery For Long Range Electric Cars

simplayer

Member
So when it's -30 Celsius like it gets in winter in most of Canada, the car won't start? This is DOA then.

Ah yes, the world shaping market that is Canada. Engine heaters are needed to start cars in -30C anyways, not like that stopped cars from being sold there.
 

Zackat

Member
Wow that sounds like it is a huge leap forward.

I wonder about cost, safety, how long it will take to go into production and lastly if it is any better for the environment as compared to Lithium. Hopefully these solid state materials don't need rare earth minerals.
You can make them with sodium which can be had from seawater. Unless I misread one of the articles linked in here.
 

Steel

Banned
I'm gonna guess the early versions are gonna be somewhat hazardous, but this is a direction they need to be going in.
 
Sounds like what we've been waiting for in terms of range and charge time.

Just don't screw it up by putting the speedo in the middle of the dash.
 
The other amazing thing is these solid state batteries work normally down to -20 c and freaking SALT can be used as an electrolyte not rare lithium.
 

LoveCake

Member
Interesting, I wonder if these will or can be incorporated into the carbon nano-tube batteries people have been working on as the 'next-step'?

I thought that Toyota had doubled down on hydrogen fuel, I wonder if this has been dropped completely now?
 

bionic77

Member
You can make them with sodium which can be had from seawater. Unless I misread one of the articles linked in here.
Even if it didn't provide any added benefit that would be amazing if they were made with a commonly found substance.

It would be a great counter to the non stop negative news. What a surprise that 'fake' science does something to improve the world.
 

yagal

Member
Tesla has 5 more years of development before then. Not saying that wouldn't be revolutionary but Tesla has the advantage that it already is in mass production with its cars.

uUu9hwp.png
 

SRG01

Member
The temp thing isn't a big deal tesla manages ok in Canada and Norway this new much lower range just makes it easier to be efficient.
 
That same article says that it only works to -20C :p

Anyhow, the reason why there's a temperature range for solid state batteries is because of carrier mobility. That's why most of them run hot instead of -20C to 60C.
You're setting hard limits to that already but this is first generation stuff we're talking about. It also says it can operate at -20C, not that it shuts down after that.
 

andthebeatgoeson

Junior Member
What hurts Tesla isn't their competitors' R&D budgets so much as terrible local and state laws in America that require new cars be sold at dealerships and hinder if not outright forbids new car sales over the internet. This gives the big auto companies a distinct advantage in time to react to popular upstarts like Tesla and copy/reverse engineer their technology to be disseminated through their dealership systems.

It may not be good long term for Tesla, but if the big autos are reacting by making their own long distance electrics, then that's better for us as consumers and the planet as a whole.

I just hope these batteries contain minimal toxic materials, because that's currently the oddball faux-environmentalist criticism of electric cars.

Ultimately, even if Tesla is a stop gap, it's better for the world. There is room for both, especially if Toyota is not competing in the luxury space. Tesla has proven they can compete there. And Lexus has a ways to go to get that cool factor.

Competition is what we want. It'll force Tesla to compete and innovate.
 

spwolf

Member
Toyota Long Range EVs -Reuters



Gonna be interesting if they double Tesla's range and get like 600 miles on a charge, while halving charge time to like 10-15 minutes.

Toyota started their own accelerated R&D in batteries in 2010:
https://www.toyota-europe.com/world...echnology/next-generation-secondary-batteries

More reports come every few years:
https://www.toyota-europe.com/world...echnology/next-generation-secondary-batteries

They are working with 4 major universities in Japan plus NIMS which is one of the largest research centers in Japan.

In 2011 they published paper in UK mag on new solid state battery. In 2012 they had small working samples.

You can find examples that they started as early as 2008:
http://www.ilika.com/about-ilika/materials-innovation/solid-state-batteries


Generally Toyota does not publish PR pieces and false news... but they did not post anything about 2022 date. It might be telling that Toyoda is now personally spearheading the EV projects.
 

G-Bus

Banned
Isn't it a bit ignorant to assume Tesla isn't working on solid state themselves?

Either way I like where the industry is heading and the more competition the better.

If only they could do away with car dealerships. Let me buy directly.

Probably another 5 years until I own an electric vehicle. Not enough options yet and the model 3 feels a bit above me even in it's "affordable" price range.
 
I believe they have an energy density that is 3 times greater than lithium ion battery of the same size (3 times the range on a single charge). They last for far more charging cycles since dendrites cannot form at the electrodes (i.e., at the anode and cathode). And they charge many times faster than even quick charging lithium ion batteries (a few minutes...like filling up at the pump).

They are the answer to our battery needs.

They also don't burst into flames, which is also a huge improvement.
 

Kickz

Member
Toyota started their own accelerated R&D in batteries in 2010:
https://www.toyota-europe.com/world...echnology/next-generation-secondary-batteries

More reports come every few years:
https://www.toyota-europe.com/world...echnology/next-generation-secondary-batteries

They are working with 4 major universities in Japan plus NIMS which is one of the largest research centers in Japan.

In 2011 they published paper in UK mag on new solid state battery. In 2012 they had small working samples.

You can find examples that they started as early as 2008:
http://www.ilika.com/about-ilika/materials-innovation/solid-state-batteries


Generally Toyota does not publish PR pieces and false news... but they did not post anything about 2022 date. It might be telling that Toyoda is now personally spearheading the EV projects.

Perhaps they are nearing perfecting the technology, hence the 2022 date given
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
Wonder how long till a car company has a Samsung situation with exploding batteries and cars catching fire.
 

Izayoi

Banned
Wonder how long till a car company has a Samsung situation with exploding batteries and cars catching fire.
Theoretically, this technology greatly reduces the chances of fire/explosion. Being a solid, it is vastly more stable than the liquid we are using now, and is virtually leak-proof as an added benefit.
 

spwolf

Member
Isn't it a bit ignorant to assume Tesla isn't working on solid state themselves?

Either way I like where the industry is heading and the more competition the better.

If only they could do away with car dealerships. Let me buy directly.

Probably another 5 years until I own an electric vehicle. Not enough options yet and the model 3 feels a bit above me even in it's "affordable" price range.

Tesla does not do R&D on battery, likes of Panasonic and LG Chem do that... I am sure they are doing it to.

Since EVs dont matter for where i live, i wonder what will be application in other industries - significantly more dense small batteries will do wonders for electronics.
 

Fitts

Member
Good old Toyota.

That said, I drive a Prius for work and it's straight trash. It's the only hybrid/electric I've driven and I swear the thing has less balls than my brother's beater 3 cylinder Geo that he had back in the day. I certainly hope that improved performance/driver experience is a priority for these electrics across the board and not just battery longevity.
 
If Toyota can backup their claim, I'm in.

2022 is code for "we don't know if it's possible, but we are confident enough in the risk/reward ratio that we can put 5 years of R&D towards it".

This article tells me 3 things:
1. The risk/reward to push away from Lithium is extremely high right now (probably a lot of market pressure on buying/making the batteries)
2. Toyota possesses R&D that says a solution is inevitable
3. They are not certain at all if that solution is 3, 5, or 10 years away.

I wouldn't hold my breath - lots of materials that remain "5 years away" all the time, but it's clearly good news that Toyota is making a substantial R&D push. As usual the race is not "does it work?" but "can we make it cheaply enough to put in a car?"
 
2022 is code for "we don't know if it's possible, but we are confident enough in the risk/reward ratio that we can put 5 years of R&D towards it".

This article tells me 3 things:
1. The risk/reward to push away from Lithium is extremely high right now (probably a lot of market pressure on buying/making the batteries)
2. Toyota possesses R&D that says a solution is inevitable
3. They are not certain at all if that solution is 3, 5, or 10 years away.

I wouldn't hold my breath - lots of materials that remain "5 years away" all the time, but it's clearly good news that Toyota is making a substantial R&D push. As usual the race is not "does it work?" but "can we make it cheaply enough to put in a car?"

I dunno, 2022 is pretty aggressive in auto industry terms.
 

East Lake

Member
Tesla does not do R&D on battery, likes of Panasonic and LG Chem do that... I am sure they are doing it to.

Since EVs dont matter for where i live, i wonder what will be application in other industries - significantly more dense small batteries will do wonders for electronics.
They still do research themselves. Here's an example.

Almost a year into his new research partnership with Tesla, battery researcher Jeff Dahn has been hitting the talk circuit presenting some of his team’s recent progress. We reported last week on his talk at the International Battery Seminar from March and now we have a talk from him at MIT this week.

He went into details about why Tesla decided to work with his team and hire one of his graduate students, but he also announced that they have developed cells that can double the lifetime of the batteries in Tesla’s products – 4 years ahead of schedule.

Update: Dahn reached out to clarify that the cells in question were tested in the lab and they are not in Tesla’s products yet.

During the talk titled “Why would Tesla Motors partner with some Canadian?” – embedded below, Dahn explained how they invented a way to test battery cells in order to accurately monitor them during charging and discharging to identify causes for degradation.

One of his students working on the project went on to work for Tesla’s in-house battery cell research group and another started a company to commercialize the battery cell testing machines that they developed. Their client list includes Tesla, but also Apple, GM, 24M, and plenty of other large battery manufacturers and consumers.

While we couldn’t get that valuable information, when they started recording again, it was for a Q&A session and the first question was about his team’s ultimate goal for the lifetime of li-ion batteries.

He hesitated to answer, but then he said:

“In the description of the [Tesla] project that we sent to NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) to get matching funds from the government for the project, I wrote down the goal of doubling the lifetime of the cells used in the Tesla products at the same upper cutoff voltage. We exceeded that in round one. OK? So that was the goal of the project and it has already been exceeded. We are not going to stop – obviously – we have another four years to go. We are going to go as far as we can.”
https://electrek.co/2017/05/09/tesla-battery-lifetime-double/
 
I dunno, 2022 is pretty aggressive in auto industry terms.

Yeah, but it's a goal, not a manufacturing agreement. It would be like Rockstar saying their goal is to ship GTA6 by 2020. Everybody starts aligning in that direction, money is spent, but ultimately research (like game development) has a lot of unknowns that kick in. 5 years is a lot of time to announce "changing priorities" or "reduced spending" to change targets.

I really think Toyota's goal is a bit more immediate; can we develop a solid timeline to scale manufacturing that would give us an edge over the industry? Because being first isn't worth a dime. What they need is a path to having a capacity and price advantage. They will remain in R&D hell until that's ready to go.
 

spelen

Member
It's probably more like five to ten years. If you don't believe me search around for the major automakers plans to go electric. They're really not that aggressive compared to Tesla, and Tesla won't have a ton of stranded assets.

Volvo, VW, and jaguar of the top of my head are all releasing proper EV's within the next 3 years. GM has already started in earnest so in three years who knows where they'll be. hundai is about to launch the ioniqu (I donno how to spell it.). a proper EV that provides less than respectable (imo) range but at a sub 30K price. Knowing Hyundai they upgrade their line quickly. furthermore, with countries like England and France looking to ban non-EV cars (albeit in like 2040) will certainly not slow things down. the one thing in teslas favour is that trump doesn't care about emissions regulation so at least till the next president arrives one can reasonably assume US will not push EV productions like EU certainly has and will.
 

East Lake

Member
If you take Volvo as an example you can compare plans.

(Reuters) - Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O) said it was stepping up production plans for its upcoming Model 3 mass-market sedan and would build a total of 500,000 all-electric vehicles in 2018, two years ahead of schedule, but warned that spending will ramp up in tandem.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-results-idUSKCN0XV2JL

"This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car," said Hakan Samuelsson, Volvo president and chief executive, in a statement. "Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1 million electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it. This is how we are going to do it."

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...s-will-be-electric-or-hybrid-starting-in-2019

And that's electrified, not electric, so a lot of them will be hybrids. GM has a decent electric car but probably no serious plans to mass produce it at this point. They're trying to sell like 30,000 this year.
 

danowat

Banned
Any improvements in battery tech are very welcome, but there are a number of elephants in the room that are going to stop large scale adoption of EV.

Infrastructure is one, both in terms of charging stations, and also for people how have restricted access to powerpoints at their homes, pricing is another, and the other thing is a change in mindset, this is be a big ask, people have been so used to petrol driven cars for so long that they view any shift with a sideways glance.
 

23qwerty

Member
that'd be amazing considering how long the range already seems to be and how short the charging time already is..
 

Peru

Member
Any improvements in battery tech are very welcome, but there are a number of elephants in the room that are going to stop large scale adoption of EV.

Infrastructure is one, both in terms of charging stations, and also for people how have restricted access to powerpoints at their homes, pricing is another, and the other thing is a change in mindset, this is be a big ask, people have been so used to petrol driven cars for so long that they view any shift with a sideways glance.

Not really. As long as a car looks good and is comfortable people will buy it. Hardcore motorheads are a small minority. In my country EVs are frequently top sellers of a given month. Infrastructure follows that success. It gets easier and easier to charge one on your way around town or at home. Government subsidy for environmentally friendly vehicles helps though.
 

danowat

Banned
Not really. As long as a car looks good and is comfortable people will buy it. Hardcore motorheads are a small minority. In my country EVs are frequently top sellers of a given month. Infrastructure follows that success. It gets easier and easier to charge one on your way around town or at home. Government subsidy for environmentally friendly vehicles helps though.

Maybe it's a social thing dependent on country?, which country are you in?, I've seen a lot of responses from the US and the UK that are quite damning, not to mention the whole slew of myths that are banded around.
 
Maybe it's a social thing dependent on country?, which country are you in?, I've seen a lot of responses from the US and the UK that are quite damning, not to mention the whole slew of myths that are banded around.
It wont last long, people always have very strong opinions until they're made to look a bit silly. They're just people fighting against the future, being pretentious about something they barely have a grasp of.

Just give it time.
 
Any improvements in battery tech are very welcome, but there are a number of elephants in the room that are going to stop large scale adoption of EV.

Infrastructure is one, both in terms of charging stations, and also for people how have restricted access to powerpoints at their homes, pricing is another, and the other thing is a change in mindset, this is be a big ask, people have been so used to petrol driven cars for so long that they view any shift with a sideways glance.
The mindset change will come if you address the other points. People will gravitate to whatever is convenient, and cheap. Most will not even think about it once you hit those two points.
 
Top Bottom