Toyota's Solid-State Battery Prototype Could Be an EV Game Changer

Imagine an electric car battery that provides more than 300 miles of range, charges in approximately ten minutes, requires no bulky heating and cooling systems, maintains 80 percent of its charge capacity for 800 cycles (about 240,000 miles), and isn't prone to spontaneous combustion. Such is the promise of the solid-state car battery, a holy grail that automakers and manufacturers are racing to find. Now, Toyota announced it'll have a running prototype with a solid-state battery ready by next year.

Before you yawn and click the back button on your browser, consider the implications of this technology. Range and charge times are the biggest barriers to EV adoption, and while a ten-minute charge is still quite a bit longer than it takes to fill a gas tank with liquid fuel, it's a lot better than having to make lunch plans while your car recharges. A compact fast-charging battery could be the EV equivalent of the electric starter, as it would allow battery-powered electric cars to conquer internal-combustion power once and for all.

Toyota is far from the sole entrant in this race, nor is it the only company making headlines. Last week, a California company called QuantumScape, which has a strategic partnership with Volkswagen, announced promising test results for its own solid-state cell. Toyota's announcement of its upcoming Euro-market electric SUV included the note that the company plans to have solid-state battery technology in its production vehicles by 2025.

Toyota, in partnership with Panasonic, currently has more than a thousand patents covering solid-state batteries, and Nissan is working on its own solid-state battery, which it claims will appear in a "non-simulation" vehicle by 2028. Toyota does not currently offer a battery-powered vehicle in the United States and hasn't offered one since the 2012-2014 RAV4 EV, but it is about to launch an update of the hydrogen fuel cell powered Mirai. Nissan, meanwhile, offers the Leaf. The brand is also preparing to launch its first electric SUV: the Ariya.

Both Toyota and Nissan have the might of the Japanese government behind them. Japan is assembling a ¥2 trillion fund (around $19 billion) to support decarbonization technology, a significant part of which will be used to support the development of solid-state batteries (particularly the procurement of lithium, of which global reserves are finite). At least two major Japanese mining and oil companies, Mitsui Kinzoku and Idemitsu Kosan, are building infrastructure to produce solid electrolyte.

Japan is hoping early advances in solid-state technology will give it the lead in battery production over China and South Korea. The global market for next-generation batteries (those that perform better than existing lithium-ion batteries) is expected to grow from $39 million this year to $413 million in 2025, $3.1 billion in 2030, and $25.2 billion in 2035.

Needless to say, other companies are well into the race. Samsung has developed a solid-state battery using silver-carbon instead of lithium. This prototype battery has the potential for 500 miles of range in a pack half the size of a modern lithium-ion battery. Additionally, Colorado-based Solid Power is partnering with Ford and BMW to develop battery tech, while Mercedes is working with Hydro-Québec in Canada.

The race to develop a solid-state battery for electric vehicles is on, and if Toyota's plans to produce a running prototype in 2021 come to fruition, then we could very well be looking at the dominant automotive technology of the future within the next year.