Posted on 06/22/2023 7:25:08 AM PDT by Red Badger
The automotive juggernaut unveiled new battery tech and new battery-powered vehicle plans.
Toyota has big plans to bring new, improved tech — and, perhaps, a sharper focus — to the electric vehicle market. It suggests a shift from the auto juggernaut’s previous position, which took a more skeptical approach to converting to fully EVs, instead pursuing a mix of fully-electric, hybrid, and hydrogen cars.
The maker of the Prius, the world’s first mass-produced hybrid, says it will continue to offer a range of powertrain options, but it also announced a suite of new technologies designed to help the company fully join the fight for the EV market. This includes AI-assisted aerodynamic design, “Gigacasting” manufacturing like the kind used by Tesla, and — most crucially — “next-gen” EV batteries.
Toyota claims it will soon crank out EVs capable of going over 600 miles on one charge by 2026 — double the average range of new EVs hitting the road today. By 2028, the company’s aim is over 900 miles, per InsideEVs.
“That is stunning,” Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst at Cox Automotive, told Axios. (Cox Automotive and Axios are owned by the same parent company.)
Concern over driving range is one of the three biggest barriers preventing people on the fence from going fully electric, Krebs noted.
Toyota has announced a suite of new technologies designed to help the company fully join the fight for the EV market, including AI-assisted aerodynamic design, “Gigacasting” manufacturing, and — most crucially — “next-gen” EV batteries.
New battery tech: First on Toyota’s innovation docket is an optimized version of the lithium-ion battery that currently dominates the electric car market, InsideEVs reported. The 600-mile per charge battery will power a new model from Lexus, the luxury brand owned by Toyota.
Two new bipolar lithium iron phosphate batteries will launch next. The first, scheduled for 2026-27, is expected to reduce costs by 40%, InsideEVs reported; the second will be an advanced version with 10% more range, slated for production in 2027-28.
Finally, Toyota announced plans for a solid-state battery with a range of over 900 miles on one charge, hoping to hit the road in five years.
Solid state, fluid future: Solid-state batteries hold promise — and pitfalls — for electric vehicles. As Motortrend explained, solid-state batteries differ from the kind currently dominating the road in a crucial way: the separator, which keeps two crucial battery components separated, is the same medium that the current flows through. Traditional batteries use separators that allow for a liquid electrolyte medium to pass through it, instead.
This makes the batteries more stable, faster charging, and able to generate more juice with less weight. However, solid-state batteries are also material intensive, have some of the same material-modifying issues current batteries have, and — perhaps the real killer, right now — are more expensive to make.
Toyota claims it will be releasing batteries that will extend the rang up to 900 miles by 2028 — but the automaker has made similar claims before.
All of which could color Toyota’s new EV dedication.
“Whenever anyone said, ‘Oh, Toyota’s lagging on EVs,’ I always cautioned them: You don’t know what’s going on in their labs,” Krebs told Axios. “What’s pretty clear now is they’re going public with some of the work they’ve been doing.”
But, as Elektrek pointed out, Toyota’s been going public with what they’ve been doing for a while now; back in 2014, the company claimed a solid-state battery would be on the road by 2020.
They wouldn’t lie, would they?.......🤷♂️😎
But many times roof demolition is free in Florida. :)
I haven't heard anything about that. EVs will just become expensive. Eventually, they'll make it so that it'll cost 75 grand to buy an EV. So less people will own personal vehicles. Mass transit will become more common. You live in Springfield and there's no public buses available. The mayor will make sure it's available in the next 5-10 years.
“It is only superstition that prevents their widespread adoption and use in today’s world.”
I’ll call that comment BS
...and the reason follows!!!
“Power each of these smaller grids with small modular nuclear power electric generation plants, and using technology already available or well into the beta test stage of development.”
Nothing like you have suggested exists except in the US Navy. Only recently have the first plans for such been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. https://apnews.com/article/technology-or-state-wire-ut-state-wire-id-state-wire-science-910766c07afd96fbe2bd875e16087464
Plans approved NOT a working example from the approved plans, and probably due to the slow nature of government five to twenty five years in the future unless a grid collapse changes the timeline. Not to mention public concern.
Consider how long the Navy has safely powered many ships through nuclear reactors over many many years and yet civilian use is shunned as the plague and regulated into a virtual stand still.
My home has a Low Rise roof, built in 1960, because
of hurricanes. We have been thru many since 1960.
A new subdivision was recently built across the street from my house where an elementary school used to be.
All these new $300k+ homes have HIGH RISE ROOFS like in the northern states.
They will not fare well in the next hurricane....................
In the past you have gone to great lengths to explain your system and how it works for you and the necessity of living in an area that supports your system. I’m wondering why those past explanations are not found on your FR home page for the benefit of those who have not seen your earlier posts on the subject?
The scenario of being forced out of private vehicles and into public transport seems far fetched to me. I think the big push for EVs while keeping clean power as a priority is going to force the US and Europe to reconsider nuclear, and I don’t think the left has the political will (or need) to get in the way of that.
“Unfortunately, our masters have already selected what they think is best.”
~~~~~~~
Then it must be time to “unselect” such “masters”.
~Easy
They’re going to need a lot more more child labor and toxic waste dumps
“Then it must be time to “unselect” such “masters”.”
We will see if that is still possible in 2024.
PS have fun suckers
Thanks. Don’t believe I have seen that thread.
All this will be dependent on the mandatory windmill farms and solar farms that are not that dependable in the winter months. Texas should jump right on this.
Here in NW Florida I see Teslas and others now everywhere..........
We don't usually think about energy in this way, but, if solar is do-able in your area, it's better if you take ownership of it and make sure you're ready to do the research to make it work best for your power consumption habits and driving habits. If you think about it, a lot of things in life are like that. If you're able to do it yourself (or manage for yourself professional installers to do it) it's a lot more efficient than the overly regulated and deep bureaucratic layers that have been erected in the energy production and distribution industry that make it not work as cheaply as it used to.
The hybrid water heater is the best example. The plumbers who installed it and the HVAC man who installed my variable speed heat pump didn't think about how the water heater could be incorporated into helping my central HVAC cool my home every time my wife and I take a shower. When the water heater runs, it uses a built-in heat pump to draw heat out of the air it draws in, put that heat into the water tank (to heat the water) and exports clean cold air. My water heater runs more efficiently for three reasons: 1) I ran a duct form my attic into the water heater's air intake to give it free warm air to use as a heat source (which makes the water heater not have to run as long to find heat in the air it takes in). 2) During the warm 7 to 8 months I run the A/C, I duct the free cold air coming from the water heater into an air receiver of the central HVAC --- thus my variable speed heat pump for my home doesn't have to work as hard to cool the air of the home during the 2-3 hours the water heater runs. 3) My home HVAC has not just a variable speed heat pump, but also a variable speed blower. In other words, they are almost always running even if at a low speed. Thus, any time of day that my wife and I make the water heater run (taking a shower, running the dishwater, etc.), the free cold air coming out of the water heater will always be picked up by the HVAC air receiver in the floor by the water heater and be sucked into the central air system because the variable speed air handler is always pulling air. Now that I pointed out how simple duct work makes the water heater both run more efficiently and help the home HVAC run more efficiently, it's seems like a no-brainer. But none of the "professionals" dreamed that up, and I had to explain to them why I wanted it done. Everybody is used to doing the same ol' same ol' within their own silo and not seeing a larger picture. But now that it's done, my water heater helps cool my home some, uses less energy than any other water heater type, and draws less power at a time (running at 300W to 350W) so that if multiple appliances are running simultaneously the total load on my home is less liable to cross the 18kW limit that my solar inverters can produce before they have to draw the excess above that from the grid. In other words, by thinking ahead of time through the details of each subproject (the HVAC efficiency project, the water heater efficiency project, the solar and inverters project) I was able to make the overall energy project work more efficiently than the sum of their parts.
I'd bore you if I listed all the things like that in the overall project to make our home and EV charging more energy efficient without reducing our lifestyle or driving habits. The point is that no professional will see those things better than you can because you know your particular situation and habits better than anybody else. Thus, a project like this works best only if you take ownership in finding those things you can improve on to make the system work better at saving you money. Nobody else is going to do it. You have to have a YOYO mentality. And that's what us conservatives bring to the table. We're more liable to have that kind of YOYO mentality because we already have the mindset of what Reagan called "the 9 most feared words in America".
Maybe finding a way to describe the battery that doesn't make it sound like a psychotic explosive would help?
My son is an R/C racing enthusiast. I remember his first lithium batteries and brushless motors. Both were prone to exploding. We would only charge the batteries outside. Too volatile.
Thanks again for more information on your system and thought process.
I fortunately live in an area of seven months of winter and two months of transition at least. So, neither solar or wind are potential benefits at home as I see it. The State is still burdened with wind integration into a shrinking electrical grid. Solar is good for an RV in the summer months, but is increasingly being forced on us in an area where it is totally incompatible with reliable baseload production.
Coal fired powerplants have been shutting down in our region for over five years to the point that the President of our electric coop is writing beware articles in the coop’s newsletter. A shameful situation driven by EPA demands on the large producers. I just received the latest Coop news, and for the second time in three months the President has again warned that we are headed for rolling blackouts if something doesn’t change.
On top of all that the idiocy of carbon capture which has raised it’s ugly head within the State of South Dakota with the announcement of a five state pipeline to sequester CO2 in North Dakota for the kickback money from the Fed to the tune of Billions of dollars. Eminent Domain appears to be the means to acquire the land for the pipeline.
All of it part of the leftist plan to destroy the country as we know it. That is what we in the mid-west are experiencing related to wind and solar as unreliable electricity producers to the ever shrinking electric power grid. Production figures are up, but reliable base load is not.
Assuming the new batteries would have similar charging characteristics as current batteries, the advantage of having higher capacity batteries is shorter DC fast charging times. The charge rate starts slowing down around 60% of battery capacity. At 80% of battery capacity it does make a lot of sense to continue to charge unless one needs the range. A current Tesla with a 300 mile battery takes around a hour to charge to 100%. A 600 mile vaporware battery charging at a 350KWH DC charing station could get 400 miles of range in about 20 minutes.
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