Toyota boasts new battery technology with 745-mile range and 10-minute charging time — here’s how it may impact mass EV adoption::The potential to significantly reduce pollution could be huge.
Toyota boasts new battery technology with 745-mile range and 10-minute charging time — here’s how it may impact mass EV adoption::The potential to significantly reduce pollution could be huge.
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It requires years of test drives to go to market and get production quantities enough to sell
There is a 0% chance it’s available in 2028 if there isn’t a demo unit today.
It might be in some high end “we’ll sell 1,000 of these cars” by then
It’s a battery, they can probably forgo a lot of the usual testing since it’s only necessary to match voltage performance requirements.
In theory, it could also be used to replacing existing vehicles batteries as well.
They can’t bypass certifications
They’ve also been pushing hydrogen and not working on BEVs while everyone else was working on BEVs
I like your optimism, but this is just marketing fluff that won’t come to market on that timeline
I don’t know if the journalist didn’t understand, or Toyota lied, but it’s not happening by 2028
What certification does it need other than be certified by Toyota for use?
You’re right it’s unlikely to happen, but not for any technical or testing reasons like you claimed. If Toyota wants to make it be able to replace existing ones, it’s entirely possible. There’s nothing stopping them other than the battery technology not being able to be the same formfactor for performance.
Engineer in the automotive industry here. Vehicles need a ton of certification by tons of different governments and face very strict regulation.
Just a battery alone is going to be subject to lots of EMC emissions and interference tests. Then you have the capability to survive crashes, fail operational requirements, how does the battery fail (does it explode or just disconnect itself?), etc. etc. These are all dependent on the chassis the battery is in, so they can’t just swap it into an existing chassis and say “Oh it worked with battery A, it’ll work with battery B.” Unfortunately the requirements are just way too strict for that.
Additionally I can’t go into details but the sentiment others are echoing of “If it’s coming in 2028 they should have a functioning prototype” are true in my experience. It takes several years to design and release a car, and when you’re introducing a new battery tech or drive train or similar changes it takes even longer.
Humor me. It’s possible with the batteries we already use, why would this be different? I can go get a li-ion battery to replace a battery in any existing ICE vehicle.
Different battery chemistries do not behave identically in terms of failure modes, EMC emissions and interference response, and tons of other things. Just swapping one battery for another has a huge effect even before you consider auxiliary components like charging circuitry.
My assumptions as to why you can just drop in an aftermarket battery and crate motor into an existing ICE vehicle (also, far from any vehicle, it is a relatively niche product) are that A. The batteries are way smaller and aren’t structural to the frame the way they are in BEV-first designs (but this is how we get good range out of them). B. The companies selling these probably aren’t held to the same emissions standards that an automaker is.
Again, these are assumptions, I don’t work in conversions but in BEV designs primarily. I know there’s a ton of red tape for us to even think about changing battery chemistry, and we 100% would have to get all new certifications for it.
You misunderstood, if you require all this certification to change battery types. You wouldn’t be able to replace 12v sealed lead acid in an ICE vehicle with li-ion or other types.
It’s already a thing that happens, yes there is hell of other hurdles, but there’s nothing magical about changing battery chemistry type and the vehicle.
Then Toyota has some magic power that all the other car companies I work with don’t
I know Tesla plays fast and loose with NHTSA regulations, but I doubt Toyota will
This battery technology will have to pass safety inspections, just as Li-ion
Test it in existing vehicles, can even do it discretely without the public knowing. Also can be done in lab as well.
Why would it be magic to make a replacement battery, and how would they be playing fast and loose?
If they had the ability to test it in a vehicle, they would be shouting about it from the hills rather than this “maybe it might be possible” report that keeps getting shared
It would be magic to get it into a vehicle in 2028. Every other car manufacturer has finalized their designs past that by now, and aren’t going to risk such a massive change this late in the design process
This is part of why the infotainment systems in cars tend to suck. They’re finalized about 6 years before the car goes to market
Once they have a functional prototype they can do all that, they still have 5 years. As a replacement battery you could retrofit it to any vehicle, so the model year is totally irrelevant.
Some vehicles you’re able to update the infotainment system to more recent version, so maybe not the best example.