On December 14, 2021, Toyota Motor Corporation vehicles are displayed at a conference on the company’s battery EV strategy in Tokyo, Japan. KIM KYUNG-HOON/REUTERS
BEVs are becoming more and more popular around the world, however some buyers are turned off by the fire dangers and quick battery deterioration.
Following allegations of fires, General Motors (GM.N) and Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) were compelled to recall EVs equipped with LG Energy Solution batteries last year.
At a test-drive event for the bZ4X sport utility vehicle (SUV) prototype last week, Masaya Yamamoto, a project manager at Toyota, said, “We concentrated on balancing three factors: cruising range, battery deterioration, and charging speed.”
BEVs normally take hours to charge, and adopting quick-charging techniques frequently results in the destruction of the battery’s cells due to overheating. This eventually results in a decrease in cruising range, which lowers a vehicle’s resale value.
Toyota claimed that the batteries it produces—which it developed with Panasonic Corp (6752.T)—include a unique coolant that resists electrical flow. In the event of a leak, battery packs are also designed to keep the cells and coolant apart.
According to Toyota, this and other advancements will result in the batteries for the new BEV series maintaining more than 90% of their capacity after ten years.
Toyota is thinking about solely selling EVs through “subscription” to consumers in Japan, where EV adoption has been sluggish, in an effort to allay concerns about battery life and resale value. In addition to additional advantages, the monthly price would pay for maintenance and battery replacement.
According to Toyota, the SUV model will begin to be sold in Japan and other significant countries in the middle of 2022.
Through an investment of 8 trillion yen ($70 billion) to electrify its vehicles, Toyota has set a target of selling 3.5 million BEVs yearly by the year 2030. View More
Satoshi Sugiyama and Maki Shiraki contributed to the reporting, and Chang-Ran Kim and Sherry Jacob-Phillips edited it.
In This Article...
Toyota produces their own batteries, right?
The first EV battery factory in the world to be entirely owned by a Japanese automaker rather than a joint venture with a battery firm will be built in North Carolina by Toyota for a cost of $1.29 billion.
Toyota said in October that it would spend $3.4 billion over the following ten years on vehicle battery research, development, and manufacturing in the US. By 2030, the company hopes to create 200 gigawatt hours of batteries, sell 2 million electric vehicles annually, and spend $13.5 billion on batteries worldwide.
By 2025, Toyota wants 10 battery production lines operating at new battery sites all over the world. The business claims that when manufacturing starts in 2025, the four lines at the North Carolina plant will be able to produce enough lithium-ion battery packs for 800,000 EVs every year. Toyota intends to eventually add two more production lines to the facility, increasing its ability to supply 1.2 million EVs with batteries annually.
The Toyota plant will increase US battery manufacturing, which the Department of Energy estimates at 8% of worldwide production in 2020. China currently has a capacity of more than 75% for manufacturing lithium batteries.
By 2025, the US is not anticipated to surpass 10% of the fast expanding worldwide battery capacity, despite the Biden administration’s quest for incentives to strengthen the domestic EV supply chain.
Toyota will first construct batteries at the North Carolina facility for its hybrid cars, but in the long run, the carmaker intends to also produce batteries for its all-electric cars.
In 2020, Toyota and Lexus sold more than 20% of new hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, but the business has come under fire for not releasing as many completely electric vehicles as some of its competitors.
Hybrid automobiles in the US typically emit approximately 40% more carbon dioxide than an all-electric vehicle, and plug-in hybrids emit around 33% more, according to the Department of Energy, even though they are cleaner than gasoline-powered vehicles.
Only 15 of Toyota’s planned 70 electrified cars will be BEVs when they go on sale in 2025. GM estimates that by then it will sell 30 BEVs.
Where do batteries for Toyota come from?
Tokyo’s Toyota City (Dec. 7, 2021)
Today, Toyota Motor North America revealed that the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite in North Carolina has been selected as the site for Toyota’s new $1.29 billion vehicle battery production facility, which will be known as Toyota Battery Manufacturing, North Carolina (TBMNC).
When TBMNC goes into operation in 2025, it will feature four manufacturing lines, each of which can produce enough lithium-ion batteries for 200,000 cars, with the aim of expanding to at least six production lines for a combined annual capacity of up to 1.2 million cars.
The approximately $3.4 billion total investment made by Toyota and Toyota Tsusho on October 18—which did not include funds for developing land and facilities—will be partially used to finance the $1.29 billion investment by Toyota and Toyota Tsusho, which is expected to result in the creation of 1,750 new American jobs.
The Greensboro-Randolph Megasite is the perfect place to make the electrification of transportation a reality, according to Ted Ogawa, CEO of Toyota Motor North America. “North Carolina has the ideal setting for this investment, having the necessary infrastructure, an excellent educational system, access to a talented and diversified labor population, and a friendly corporate climate. With the Tar Heel state, we are beginning a cooperation that will be mutually beneficial as we set out on our mission to become carbon neutral and offer mobility to everyone.”
In addition, Toyota is dedicated to producing the batteries at this new facility with only renewable energy as the business works to achieve carbon neutrality for its vehicles and operations by 2050.
Who provides solid-state batteries to Toyota?
Toyota and its research partner Panasonic presently have the majority of the solid-state battery patents, according to Nikkei Asia on Thursday. It is uncertain which manufacturer will win the race to integrate solid-state batteries into a production vehicle.
In 10 nations and territories from 2000 until the end of March of this year, Nikkei examined patent applications for solid-state battery technology along with Tokyo-based research company Patent Consult.
Panasonic came in second with 445 patents, clearly trailing Toyota with 1,331 known patents. According to the report, Idemitsu Kosan, which came in third, has 272 patents.
It’s important to note that while patents are a useful tool to assess R&D activities, they don’t provide a reliable picture of how far along a company is in putting a particular invention into production. Because of the promises of higher energy density, numerous additional automakers and battery suppliers are also making investments in solid-state battery development.
According to Nikkei, Toyota started investigating solid-state batteries in the 1990s. In 2019, it collaborated with Panasonic to develop the technology together. Panasonic had just before claimed that solid-state cells wouldn’t be available until 2028 or later. Of course, Panasonic and Tesla have been business partners for a very long time.
Toyota has stated on a few occasions that the technology is in the works and will be available in a production model by the middle of the decade. It was disclosed earlier this year that the first application, rather than an EV, will be a hybrid.
Nissan, meanwhile, believes that solid-state batteries hold the key to making affordable EVs practical for a wider range of automobiles, such as pickup trucks and SUVs. It revealed a prototype production facility for solid-state battery cells earlier this year, with intentions to set up a pilot production line in Japan as early as 2024 and market availability in an electric vehicle (EV) by 2028.
Honda, BMW, Ford, and Volkswagen are among the automakers who have talked about utilizing solid-state batteries in their vehicles. However, the only useful application to date has been in a different kind of vehicle. In Germany, solid-state cells are already deployed in city buses, but they need very precise conditions, like as high temperatures, that are impractical for use in passenger cars.
How reliable are Toyota batteries?
As long as you’re not in one of the states with higher temperatures, Toyota OE batteries are excellent and operate consistently for years. Even then, you should be protected if the battery malfunctions thanks to the extensive warranty duration.
Who provides lithium to Toyota?
With a new supply arrangement with the Rhyolite Ridge mining project of Ioneer LTD, Toyota Motors is increasing its US EV production capacity. According to the new agreement, Ioneer will provide the Toyota-Panasonic battery venture with 4,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate each year.
Electric vehicle sales are continuing to set records, which is driving up demand for lithium, a key component of EV batteries. The agreement comes as a recently proposed climate measure includes an enhancement of the EV tax credit.
To qualify for the credit, however, automakers would have to buy lithium and other essential minerals locally or from nations that have a free trade agreement with the US. James Calaway, the executive chairman of Ioneer, actually said:
The use of this lithium in the United States is the sole objective of this agreement.
Depending on the model, the lithium will be sufficient to produce about 150,000 EV batteries. By 2030, Toyota plans to create 30 different battery-electric vehicles. Furthermore, Toyota anticipates 3.5 million annual EV sales by 2030, according to the business’ most recent SEC filing.
Likewise, supplies are anticipated to begin in 2025, subject to finance and permit approval.
Toyota uses Tesla batteries, right?
Toyota is collaborating with Redwood Materials, a battery recycling business run by JB Straubel, a co-founder of Tesla, to gather and recycle auto batteries. The idea is to either refurbish or disassemble old, worn-out batteries so that the components can be used to make new batteries.
Redwood specifically intends to produce cathodes and anodes, two important battery cell components. The company’s ultimate objective is to establish a “closed-loop supply chain for electric vehicles,” which entails using old EV batteries to make new batteries for automobiles.
The alliance is not now concentrating its efforts on more recent vehicles because their batteries are still in the early stages of development, even though Toyota is currently releasing its first long-range battery-electric vehicle.
As opposed to this, Toyota and Redwood are concentrating on “the first wave of battery-electric vehicles, which are almost 20 years old and approaching the end of their useful lives. In California, that primarily refers to first-generation Toyota Priuses. Future activities for Redwood will be located close to “Toyota’s recently announced North American battery plant on the East Coast,” which is most likely referring to the North Carolina facility.
It’s noteworthy that Redwood’s technology and recycling procedures for car batteries aren’t precisely proven and reliable. Ford and Volvo are partners in the company’s initiative to deal with end-of-life electric vehicles, which was just introduced in February. Redwood has been preparing to handle car batteries for some time, but it hasn’t really put that ability to scale to the test.
The business stated on Tuesday that it receives about six gigawatt hours’ worth of batteries each year for recycling.
By 2025 and 2030, it intends to produce components valued at 100 GWh and five times that amount, respectively.
Those intentions look, to put it mildly, ambitious. But there are several incentives, as Bloomberg notes. Making EV batteries is quite expensive, and some businesses are finding it difficult to do so on a large scale, which limits their ability to produce EVs. There is significant motivation for manufacturers to hunt out and support recycling operations because it doesn’t appear like that process will get any less expensive any time soon.
Which American firms produce the batteries used in electric vehicles?
only six businesses
In the second half of 2020, 87 percent of the batteries and battery metals used in passenger EVs were supplied by BYD, CATL, LG Energy Solution, Panasonic, Samsung SDI, and SK Innovation. During that time, Tesla installed 22.5 gigawatt-hours of batteries, which was almost as much as its five closest rivals combined: BYD of China, Hyundai, Mercedes, Renault, and Volkswagen. The supply chains for battery and motor materials are under unheard-of pressure from what Castilloux refers to as a “tsunami of demand,” which has driven up the cost of lithium, nickel, cobalt, neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium.