Japanese carmaker Toyota finally seems to embrace the all-electric car and aims at several improved BEV batteries shortly, with an all-solid-state battery announced as soon as 2027. That one should allow a 1 200 km range, later up to 1 500 km, and fast charging from 10-80% in 10 minutes or less.

Toyota sold only some 20 000 BEVs globally last year but aims at 1,5 million units annually by 2026 and 3,5 million by 2030. A range of cheaper batteries, offering more range to tackle ‘range anxiety’, will be critical, it announced in a recent briefing at a research base in Shizuoka.

Assortment of cheaper battery packs

The plan is to offer various battery packs, starting with a bipolar lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that will increase the 406 km range of its current bZ4X model by 20% while decreasing costs by 40%. Quick charging (10-80%) should be possible in less than 30 minutes.

But the company says it’s also working on a Performance battery that goes further, offering a 1 000 km range at 20% lower prices than the current bZ4X battery and rechargeable in 20 minutes. By 2027 – 2028 we should expect a High-Performance bipolar lithium-ion battery, improving ranges by 10% and lowering cost by a tenth again.

Ranges up to 1 500 km

By that same time frame, Toyota is confident it will be able to launch a model with the ne plus ultra in battery technology, a solid-state battery with a 1 200 km range that can be charged in less than ten minutes. That’s 2,4 times more than most conventional lithium-ion batteries today.

Toyota even mentioned a solid-state battery with ‘higher-level specification’ with 50% more range than the Performance battery, which would mean a whopping 1 500 km range.

Solid-state batteries use a solid material as an electrolyte instead of liquids, making them far more heat-resistant, promising more energy density and shorter charging times. But one of the significant problems to overcome is that electrodes for a solid-state battery have been known to expand and contract repeatedly in charging cycles.

Degrading rapidly

That means the battery degrades rapidly after a few hundred charging cycles, while batteries need to be able to recharge thousands of times to be economically viable. Toyota now says it has overcome that hurdle with new quality materials. The Japanese carmaker is a world leader in patents for solid-state battery technology, with over 1 000 registered.

The next challenge will be taking it to mass production to decrease prices. According to the Japanese Science and Technology Agency, producing solid-state batteries costs four to 25 times more ($430 to $2 500  per kilowatt-hour) than conventional lithium-ion batteries.

Battery developers and carmakers around the world are working hard to be the first to bring solid-state batteries to the market, and some pioneers like European StoreDot say it won’t happen any sooner than 2030.

Race to the market

BMW announced it will come with a prototype BEV in 2025 and a production model by the end of the decade. Toyota now aims at 2027 – 2028, and Nissan claims the end of fiscal year 2028.

But it isn’t unthinkable the Chinese will beat them all in the race. Chinese premium EV carmaker Nio filed for three BEV models with assumed solid-state technology expected to hit the market soon. That means within a few months.

The documents filed at China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed that the NIO models would have ‘expanded battery capabilities’, attributed to Huzhou WeLion Technology Ltd. That company, with close ties to NIO, already kickstarted production of solid-state batteries last year in November.