New month, new breakthrough for Toyota’s solid-state cells. The Japanese manufacturer has announced a partnership with oil refining company Idemitsu Kosan. These two enterprises will develop and mass-produce cells with a solid electrolyte. Their commercialisation will happen any day now, in four-five years, in 2027 or 2028, when the first Toyota electrics offering first 1,000 kilometres / 620 miles, then 1,200 kilometres / 750 miles of range should be on the market.
Toyota + Idemitsu. What do solid electrolyte cells and an oil refining company have in common?
The collaboration with Idemitsu may look strange if one considers the company’s core business. But the company is in the chemical industry and is also working on sulphide-based solid electrolytes. This is the most promising direction today when it comes to solid-state cells, as sulphides guarantee good ionic conductivity, stability over a wide temperature range and the potential ease of mass production, up to and including the adaptability of existing Li-ion cell production lines.
The downsides of sulphide-based cells are the lack of off-the-shelf cell manufacturing equipment and high sensitivity to moisture. Even a small amount of water in the air during cell production or operation – and after all, their housings sometimes have valves to vent any gases – can dissolve the electrolyte and degrade the cell’s performance or even damage it. Despite these drawbacks, sulfide-based solid electrolytes are being developed by LG Chem as well as Solid Power or, as we have just been reminded, Toyota.
Solid electrolyte powder presented by (c) Idemitsu Kosan
As Reuters reports, Toyota wants to combine its competence in mass production of batteries with Idemitsu’s competence for mass production of materials (raw materials), which is expected to result in mass production of solid-state batteries. And this will allow the company to introduce electric cars that will first have a range of more than 1,000 kilometres / 620 miles and then more than 1,200 kilometres / 750 miles and allow energy to be recharged in a few to several minutes.
A prototype solid-state cell module shown by Toyota during one of its technology presentations (c) Toyota
A note from the editors: we were a little surprised that Toyota, which recently boasted a number of more than 1,000 solid-state cell patents, is looking for an external supplier of solid-state electrolyte…. But oh well. It’s the results that count. Now it should be downhill from here.
You may also be interested in the ads below: