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I hope they are successful on this. Japanese carmakers are really good and well-disciplined on building it with quality and also cheaply, I'm really excited about what they'll bring. I've always enjoyed Toyotas, I have one. Toyotas are always cheaper than the alternative and extremely reliable.
I'll believe it when I see it. There seems to be a lot of noise, confusion and FUD coming from Toyota lately.
> There seems to be a lot of noise, confusion and FUD coming from Toyota lately. Not really? The old CEO with his irrational hate of all-electric cars left, and Toyota is now free to catch up with the rest of the industry. And the best way to catch up has always been to leapfrog a tech generation ahead, rather than trying to copy what the competition designed last year.
What? It seems to be there is a lot of irrational hate on Toyota for its pragmatic approach. There's going to be a need for ICE vehicles for decades to come. As far as I'm aware, the people most likely unable to switch to EVs are likely already Toyota customers. It's not like they've relying on gas guzzling monsters like Ford/GM/etc. They've had hybrids and plug-in hybrids for how long? And in case you did not know, they do have an EV which is available to purchase. I guess they snuck that under the old bat's nose.
> Toyota is now free to catch up with the rest of the industry.
Toyota has been out in front with their hybrids. It's the rest of the industry that's catching up with Toyota. Whom do you think is actually ahead of Toyota?
The headline does not match the content of the article: "At a news conference last week, Toyota president Koji Sato also admitted that production volumes of solid-state batteries were likely to be small when the company rolls them out in electric vehicles as early as 2027." and in fact Toyota may actually be late to the game: "Other companies have also made progress recently. Chinese battery maker CATL revealed it wa…
For passenger BEVs, maybe. For many reasons, none of them related to batteries.
For batteries? No way. Demand far exceeds supply. Every battery made for the next 10 years will be bought by some one.
Battery technology is mapped out for 10-15 years. Every battery startup (cathodes, anodes, minerals, process, etc, etc) has a general plan to "skate to where the puck will be", and hopefully get there before competitors. Any one starting a gigafactory today knows what kind of batteries they'll be making (at scale) in 5 years and what their market share will be.
The trick is being profitable. And Toyota has a pretty good chance. Mostly because they have access to (cheaper) capital. And maybe because they can lean on their long relationships with Panasonic and the like.
This 'news' has been pushed about every month in the last ~6 months, and even before in 2021 there have been similar 'stories'.
But there is no battery. But they are near.
Here is one from 2021 : https://www.motortrend.com/news/toyota-battery-bev-hev-solid...
Enter the rabbit hole : https://hn.algolia.com/?q=toyota+battery
Also no surprise that they have nothing to show except a "just wait 5 years!".
Now waiting for the catch here because this sounds too good to be true.
Since battery life like this might be a step change, it will leave most EV manufacturers behind if they don’t have an answer.
EV buyers may want to consider a used EV until new tech comes out, since old or current tech is not always worth paying new prices for.
It might also be a factor in the relationship between Toyota and Tesla growing in the last week.