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The flourish of new electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids on the auto markets hint towards the diminishing of fossil fuel use.\u00a0 EV sales have a long, long way to go before outselling vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICEs), but the goals have been set by international emission standard agreements.\u00a0 Certainly, doing away with EV range anxiety, the liquid lithium-ion batteries proneness to catching fire, having EVs with brief recharging times that are in line with current ICE refuelling times, and have pricing parity between a new EV and an equivalent new ICE vehicle would make a world of difference in the minds of people on the lookout for a new car.\u00a0 Once these EV problems have been solved, perhaps consumers will genuinely buy into an all-EV future.<\/p>\n
The good news for EV enthusiasts is that essentially every big automotive manufacturer in the world has unveiled its fleet\u2019s electrification plans and zero-emission target dates. Some manufacturers have even gone further, declaring that gasoline and diesel engines would no longer be available in their model line-ups by 2050.\u00a0 And, in order for these claims to become reality, some big landmark advancements in the EV future are being made right now, with huge money currently being pumped into various manufacturer\u2019s kitties to research and create the perfect solid-state battery \u2013 especially designed for use in EVs.<\/p>\n
One automotive manufacturer with a big sway in what goes down in the automotive world is Toyota, and they have pumped billions into creating a solid-state battery for use in their future hybrid vehicles and EVs.\u00a0 A version of Toyota\u2019s LQ Concept, which first debuted at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show, is now using working solid-state batteries, and has been doing so since June 2020.\u00a0 Toyota has been collecting all the performance data from the solid state batteries in the LQ for research, development, and better solid-state battery designs.\u00a0 The LQ Concept car is unlikely to end up as a production vehicle, however the solid-state batteries inside the car, and their development, will be used as a blueprint in Toyota\u2019s new hybrid vehicles and EVs soon to make an appearance on the market for buyers to purchase.<\/p>\n
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Toyota LQ Concept Solid-State<\/p><\/div>\n
Toyota\u2019s quick development of solid-state batteries for use in all their hybrid and electric vehicles by 2030 is a sign of the ramping up in EV production that is happening not only at Toyota but in all other big global automotive brands who are boosting investments in the anticipation of greater EV and hybrid vehicle consumerism.<\/p>\n
What battery type does Tesla use?\u00a0 Currently, Tesla has been using heavy liquid lithium-ion battery technology.\u00a0 However solid-state batteries are really the next step in clever battery technology, especially for EVs. \u00a0Why?\u00a0 Solid-state batteries offer much better energy density, which leads to smaller, lighter batteries for cars but with a vastly improved range before recharging is necessary.\u00a0 Solid-state batteries will also be able to recharge from empty (flat) to 80 % in just 15 min \u2013 not anywhere between 2 to 10 hours that is currently the norm, if you can find a spare fast charger to park up at.<\/p>\n
The good news for solid-state batteries doesn\u2019t stop here either, because solid-state batteries are inherently safer due to the lack of flammable liquid electrolytes that you\u2019ll find in liquid lithium-ion batteries.\u00a0 You may have heard of various electronic devices bursting into flame?\u00a0 Well, liquid lithium-ion batteries bursting into flame and causing fires in various EVs over the last couple of decades has been an issue.\u00a0 This in itself has deterred many people away from buying into EVs altogether.<\/p>\n
So, big dollars are being spent in the design of solid electrolyte batteries (solid-state batteries) that are stable, chemically inert, and still a good conductor of ions between the electrodes.\u00a0 In essence solid-state batteries will be doing away with the slopping, flammable liquid lithium-ion electrolyte battery designs.<\/p>\n
By default, solid-state batteries are more stable, but they are also more compact in design, and therefore lighter.\u00a0 Solid state batteries thus pack more energy output into the same amount of storage space that heavier and lower-output liquid lithium-ion batteries require. \u00a0Because solid-state batteries are lighter, they have more energy density, offer more range, and deliver a better power to weight ratio, and they also recharge faster.<\/p>\n
Solid-state batteries have been used in small electronic devices like pacemakers (an amazing bit of life-changing tech) as well as radio frequency identification (RFID), and wearable devices for years. \u00a0Having fewer bits and pieces involved in the solid-state battery design means fewer things are present to go wrong. \u00a0In addition to their improved safety, size, and stability, solid-state batteries in EVs would also offer faster charging times, more travel range, and even greater energy density.<\/p>\n
Solid electrolytes in solid-state batteries can even be composed from a number of everyday materials \u2013 even ceramics and glass.\u00a0 The challenge to making solid-state batteries viable, however, is developing the technology that is commonly used in small devices and applying it to large-scale applications like in an EV. \u00a0Currently, solid state batteries are expensive to fabricate because they have been prone to cracking, which has been a result of the brittleness of the electrolytes inside the battery expanding and contracting during continual use.\u00a0 The new research and development is setting out to change this.<\/p>\n
Toyota is cracking the problem and will be using their solid-state batteries in their new range of hybrid vehicles first, which is an ideal testing ground for their fully-kitted EVs soon.\u00a0 Volkswagen is also promising that they will have solid-state batteries in use and in their cars by 2024.\u00a0 Like Toyota and Volkswagen, BMW anticipates that solid-state batteries could make it into production cars by 2025.\u00a0 Tech giants Samsung and Panasonic are working away at creating a range of solid state batteries that automakers will be able to use.\u00a0 Toyota has partnered with Panasonic to pave the way to an EV future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The flourish of new electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids on the auto markets hint towards the diminishing of fossil fuel use.\u00a0 EV sales have a long, long way to go before outselling vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICEs), but the goals have been set by international emission standard agreements.\u00a0 Certainly, doing away with EV range […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5120,86,4923,4471,59,4462,57,65,4014,3071],"tags":[4420,3349,7234,4892,6793,7235,3],"class_list":["post-13910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automotive-design","category-blog","category-electric-vehicles-evs","category-environment","category-fuel-2","category-japanese-cars","category-manufacturer-news","category-safety-2","category-sustainabilitygreen","category-technical","tag-electric-cars","tag-ev","tag-ev-developments","tag-evs","tag-solid-state-battery","tag-solid-state-battery-developments","tag-toyota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13910"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13914,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13910\/revisions\/13914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}