Toyota's Solid-State Battery Will Crush Tesla Li-Ion Updates

How ironic that Tesla's are built in an abandoned Toyota factory.

This article is interesting and all but we haven't seen the performance of the solid states battery yet and for now you cannot say for sure that the Toyota battery will vastly outperform the new Tesla ones. But even if it did, I bet Tesla have also something in their sleeves, as you said their whole market depends on if they can efficiently compete on the EV market, so if they need to have equivalent batteries to Toyota to be competitive, they will either make their own or buy from Toyota directly. Another route is also to produce batteries under license, Tesla is now the world's biggest manufacturer or EV batteries, and they have more experience and knowledge in batteries production than Toyota who as you said is a renown car manufacturer. So they might just pay Toyota for the design and make the batteries for their own vehicles. The new world of EVs is not black and white, car manufacturer can and will probably cooperate with their technologies and processes. Until now the other manufacturer were looking down on Tesla even though all the Tesla patent are free to use. Note that I don't own a Tesla but I am trying to look objectively at this story.

Several companies have claimed to be close to solid state batteries, even Tesla. Yet, we don't have them. It'd be great if Toyota actually comes out with a production ready battery, but until it's on an assembly line, it's not real. At least Tesla's battery day announcements are rooted in products that are actually being produced

It looks like Apple's future automotive battery will be based on a Lithium Titanate battery chemistry, which has been around for years in products like hearing aide batteries. Toshiba's SCIB battery is a good example of this technology. The strengths of Lithium Titanate batteries are fast charging, good low temp operation, low fire hazard, and long battery life, but the chief downside is relatively low energy density. And next problem is their relatively high price. Apparently the "revolutionary" claims from Apple relate to adapting this existing battery technology to EV cars. Combining battery materials into a large automotive, 800V cell, which could help with the energy density issue. And scaling to mass production in a large pack could help bring the battery's price down. If Apple and Toshiba were able to scale production of this Lithium Titanate battery technology for a car in 2021, and fix the chemistry's shortcomings, it would indeed be revolutionary. But if it actually takes another 4 years to get the new batteries into an affordable car, then it might not be as big of a leap ahead as it would be if released today. It's a pretty poor argument to say that a rumored future battery will "crush" Tesla's 4680 batteries. Which are being produced today, and will be in production Teslas in a few month's time.

Comparing Tesla to Toyota is like comparing a 1927 Model A to a Maybach. Tesla is not a car company. It is a cult company. Congratulations to Elon Musk for filling in as the new futuristic Prophet replacing Steve Jobs. There is a world of lost sheep tech users who need a prophet to follow. The entire EV model is a waste and a distraction. It is slowing down the transformation of the auto industry to hydrogen. We should be using the most abundant fuel in the universe vs these rare earth minerals that need to be charged by the burning of hydrogen.

No mention of QuantumScape? They would seem to be an important piece of the story.

I hope Toyota lives up to the hype on this battery and is able to mass-produce it at reasonable cost. My original plan was to trade my 2015 Camry SE in for a 2021 RAV4 Prime, if the price was right. Since it looked like I'd have to wait at least 2 years for a RAV4 Prime, I traded it in for a 2020 Lexus ES 350. The hybrid ES just didn't appeal to me. If Lexus makes an ES Prime with the same equipment that's going into the RAV4 Prime, that would be my top PHEV choice. If Toyota has no plans for a midsize Prime sedan, I'll still want a 2024 RAV4 Prime. I don't expect a Toyota solid-state EV to be mass-produced before 2027 and will stick with a PHEV until the right solid-state EV comes along.

If Toyota's solid-state battery is initially expensive and hard to mass-produce, I expect most of them to end up in PHEV's and high-end EV's until production can be ramped up.

I think the first EVs came out in the mid 19th century.
The invention of the first model electric vehicle is attributed to various people.[7] In 1828, Ányos Jedlik invented an early type of electric motor, and created a small model car powered by his new motor. Between 1832 and 1839, Scottish inventor Robert Anderson also invented a crude electric carriage.[8] In 1835, Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, the Netherlands and his assistant Christopher Becker from Germany also created a small-scale electric car, powered by non-rechargeable primary cells.[9]

Charge in 10 minutes? Where is the infrastructure to get those electrons into the battery. Without a charging network with actively cooled wire no one could lift the 600 kW cable to plug in the car. Next year's super battery claims are frequent except after next year it takes a decade to solve the problems.

I see all the nonsense being posted by the naysayers and can only laugh at it all. These people know very little about where Toyota is headed. Being late to the EV game won't hurt Toyota one bit because there's still a lot of money to be made on hybrids and PHEV's, and Toyota has the best hybrid technology on the planet. In addition to that, they're also getting more involved with hydrogen. It's not about the slow-selling Mirai, which is more of a learning tool. It's more about the hydrogen infrastructure and larger fuel cell vehicles, mostly for the transportation industry. If Toyota decides to compete with Nikola and the other companies in the hydrogen game, they'll likely excel there as well. I see a big future for plug-in fuel cell hybrids, which will offer more versatility than BEV's.

Breaking news: "the_hybrid_guy" prefers hybrids.

First off, your comparison of Apple and Android are backwards for Tesla and Toyota. The Prius if anything is the blackberry of smartphones. The Prius was and continues to be your grandma's electric vehicle. It's slow and ugly.

While Toyota does have the lead in manufacturing and sustaining quality, Tesla is killing it with technological advances. Currently their motor technology, battery technology, and self-driving technology are by far superior. Let's just say you're right that Toyota's battery technology passes Tesla, according to car experts the computing technology for self-driving vehicles in Tesla's are at least 5 years ahead of anyone else.

Tesla has received lots of criticism for them saying they will meet certain deadlines for self-driving. Back in 2015 Ford made a promise that they would have self-driving cars by 2020 but they do not receive the same criticism and I would say they're not an enclosure than where they were 2015. If Tesla breaks the barriers to self during vehicles in the next two years who will catch them? Not Toyota. At least anytime soon. I expect Toyota will release a car that will fall somewhere between the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model 3.

You really are a bachelor of science? Where are the facts. There are no (in numbers zero) patent claims by Toyota according to battery technology or charging technology. Ok, one could argue Toyota wants to make its new battery technology open source, so they do not need patents. But if you claim to charge a battery in 10 minutes for let's say 500 miles you must build up a charging network having those 1.5MW chargers, because without those the new battery technology is worthless. Have you seen any construction works so far in any country by Toyota to build up that charging network with 1.5 MW stalls? I did not. So probably let a master of science explain to you that is very likely the Toyota technology you are talking about is just vaporware.

Peter, I love your enthusiasm for Toyota, especially for their EV effort. However, you fail to analyze many details of Toyota's announcement. Cost? Mass production capacity? Plans towards EV production? So much to consider in creating a disrupter of the current lead disrupter, Tesla. As far as any one company wiping the floor with Tesla, that is a lovely image.To be honest I'd like to see it happen if it means that much of an improvement in EV technology. Mother Earth needs all the help she can get.