Toyota’s New Battery: Aluminum-Ion Wonder or Solid-State Reality?

aluminium.com ^ | 8/14/2025 | Dr. Vab

[Signalman]

The electric vehicle (EV) world is buzzing with rumors about a revolutionary new battery from Toyota. Whispers of a 1000-mile range and a 5-minute charge time have dominated headlines and YouTube videos, all pointing to a groundbreaking aluminum-ion battery. But what’s the real story behind these incredible claims? We dove deep into the official announcements to separate the hype from reality for our readers at aluminiumion.com.

The Aluminum-Ion Buzz Recent online reports have been ablaze with claims of a game-changing aluminum-ion battery from Toyota. These reports, largely fueled by a series of viral YouTube videos, suggest that Toyota’s CEO, Koji Sato, has unveiled a battery that could make current lithium-ion technology obsolete. The rumored benefits include:

A 1000-mile driving range A 5-minute charging time Lower cost and greater abundance of aluminum compared to lithium Improved safety and recyclability If true, this would be the breakthrough the EV industry has been waiting for. But as with all things that sound too good to be true, a closer look at the official source is necessary.

Toyota’s Official Roadmap: Solid-State is the Star While the idea of an aluminum-ion battery is exciting, Toyota’s official battery technology roadmap tells a slightly different, but no less impressive, story. The company’s primary focus for next-generation battery technology is on solid-state batteries.

According to Toyota’s own news releases, they have made a significant breakthrough in solid-state battery technology and are aiming for mass production by 2027-2028. Here’s what Toyota’s solid-state batteries are expected to deliver:

A 20% increase in cruising range compared to their upcoming “Performance” lithium-ion batteries, which are already targeting a range of over 800km (around 500 miles). This could mean a future range of nearly 1000km (over 600 miles). A rapid charging time of 10 minutes or less (from 10-80% state of charge). Improved safety due to the use of a solid electrolyte instead of a liquid one, which reduces the risk of fires.

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: aluminum; automotive; battery; batterybreakthru; solidstate; toyota

[Tell It Right]

She mostly just drives around town.

If that's the case then an EV is probably not feasible. If "drives around town" comes out to less than 1,000 miles or per month. If you want the nuts and bolts on the math:

1) My EV gets about 3.4 to 3.5 miles per kWh (that's after a 10% loss when converting AC to DC while charging, but does incorporate other power consumption like running the A/C in the day and headlights at night, and every now and then 70 mph driving if we go across town on the highway, etc.).

2) Then it comes down to how much power costs at your house. With Alabama Power it comes out to about 14 cents per kWh. That does not include flat monthly fees, but does include the hidden fuel rate charge (they say we're charged 12 cents per kWh, but there's also the cost of fuel the utility pays to run the power plants) and it does include the 4% state tax to total 16 cents. But reduced by 2 cents per kWh if we charge at night from 9 PM to 5 AM (an EV rate discount to encourage us to charge when the grid is least used).

So 1,000 miles per month = 286 kWh added to my power bill = $40 per month added to my power bill. Which is probably way cheaper than gas for a hybrid ... but only if you drive 1,000 miles per month.

Another cost is higher insurance premiums. My insurance doesn't have a rate rider for EV's (i.e. increased risk). But it's a more expensive car (at least EV's were 3 years ago) and thus needs more coverage. That's about $50/month for full coverage more than the liability only coverage I would have been paying if I had replaced my wife's old used gas crossover with another old used gas crossover. So for me that's part of my math.

One last thing is if your state has an EV fee when doing the annual car registration (we call it "getting your car tag" around here LOL). It's for us EV owners to pay our share of the road upkeep because we're not paying gas taxes. For us that comes out to about $200/year more (it's a higher rate X value of car than the gas car rage X value per car). I'm not complaining. It seems fair. I'm just saying it's part of the math on if an EV is worth it.

There is the extra cost of tire wear. Our EV weighs about 10% more than the gas crossover it replaced. So I assumed tires replaced 10% more frequently. That seems to be the case now that the newness has worn off and we don't drive it like teenagers with the zippy acceleration. LOL But I assumed the extra tire cost would be offset by reduced wear on brake pads (because most braking is done through regen braking). That seems to be the case. At 3 years and 81K miles our EV's brake pads are still like new.

For me the # of miles/year threshold was 8K, not 12K. But that gets into having homemade solar power, upgrading the solar the year I got the EV, and the math on how much more to upgrade the solar to get my money's worth vs how much power we consumed and if it's cheaper to not have to have a large enough solar system to provide 100% of the power, but most of it. (Back-end database programmer here, so I'm all about the numbers and the process before making big decisions.)

So far the overall energy project of solar + making the house more energy efficient (and all electric) + EV (vs leaving the house as is it was and driving gas cars) has saved our cash flow $8K across 4 years (most of that in the past 3 years after the 2022 solar upgrade and purchase of the EV). I have to make a monthly loan payment (HELOC) to pay for all of those conversions instead of paying sky high power bills + sky high natural gas bills + sky high gasoline costs like I used to. And the payoff date is 2032 (11th year of solar, 10th year of owning the EV and the solar upgrade). That's when the total cash flow savings will equal the amount still owed on the HELOC. Actually the pay off date is sooner (for pessimistic purposes I don't include the investment growth of the cash flow savings meaning that money stays in our Roth IRAs growing tax free). At that point I will have solar equipment and an EV and well insulated house and efficient HVAC and water heater that has all paid for itself and hopefully keeps saving me money. (Admittedly some warranties expire at 10 years, but some are for 25 years.)

But again, you must do your homework before replicating what I did. However, it works for you, it's really sweet to not worry about energy price inflation every time the global warmageddon doomsday cult Dims change their minds on what it takes to save the world from our carbon sins. My HELOC payment + tiny power bill + small other charges (i.e. increase in insurance and increase in car tag renewal) is about what I was paying in year 2019 for full power bill + full natural gas bill + all the gasoline we bought for 1,500 miles per month. So the energy project has made it like the past 6 years' of energy price inflation don't exist. And it makes my budget for eventual retirement (my wife's fully retired and I'm quasi-retired in my mid 50's) have one less varying factor (trying to figure out what future energy costs will be). Literally all of the energy we buy is 20% of our power (what we have to pull from the grid) + the gasoline for what little we drive the gas pickup, plus travel energy (road trip power or gasoline for the EV or truck, depending on which car we take).

[Tell It Right]

Here's my math for the article's assumed 1,000 miles charged in 5 minutes.

If the EV gets 4 miles per kWh, then we're talking about 250 kWh to charge it back up. To do that in 5 minutes required a charging rate of 3,000 kW, or 3 megawatts (MW). Can 3MW be produced? Yes. Can it be done for practical matters? For example: setting up these 3MW chargers every few hundred miles for recharging a significant number of these cars driving around on vacation. I have problems seeing how that can be done without way more significant upgrades to the grid than what's already expected for a bunch of existing style EV's.

[Skwor]

A dryer outlet is 40 amps, the fastest version of a level 2 is 80 amps, twice that of a dryer outlet. I was referencing the current high end case of a level 2 (I even stated 80 amps but I guess facts are yard for you) available to home use and it is literally twice the rating of a dyer outlet.

Since it is obvious you have no clue what you are talking about you can shut up now. Go look at the ranges a level 2 can encompass instead of doing a quick google search and pretending you have any clue what you are talking about.

Unless you can show me where 80 amps is a normal dryer outlook, I’ll wait.

[The_Media_never_lie]

What’s the best way to invest in aluminum?

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AL stocks are too expensive. Just pick up cans beside the road, and take them to recycling. Nothing invested but time.

[Skwor]

you are a special kind of stupid, it is not about KW it is about amps, transferring 200 kw in 5 minutes requires way more amps and higher voltage.

You are just posting stupid quick google searches with no clue what you are posting.

[Skwor]

Oh good grief you are in the 100 mile per gallon carburetor territory. Try actually looking up the physics of it all instead of BS internet garbage.

Didn’t China just have a bridge collapse, ya they are the pinacle of engineering

[Skwor]

You have not presented any facts only wild claims for questionable internet clickbait sites that push the tired old “China does everything better narrative.”