75
Toyota claims battery breakthrough in potential boost for electric cars (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/tech@kbin.social
56 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Japanese firm believes it could make a solid-state battery with a range of 745 miles that charges in 10 minutes

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 5 points 3 years ago (5 children)

This is the second time I’ve seen this mentioned regarding the Toyota battery breakthrough. I’ve been let down by similar release announcements more times than I can count in the past but not by a company as reputable as Toyota. Could this be legit? It would absolutely change everything. It would make battery flight practical. I don’t want to get my hopes but but it’s hard not to imagine how fundamentally this could shift the world. I sincerely hope this comes out.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    The word "breakthrough" is always a flag to me. It's either a discovery of some potential that hasn't been fully researched yet and once it is it's found to not be as practical or cost effective, or it's in development but something will happen that stalls or blocks it from getting into production (whether that be engineering, science, or intentional shelving for other reasons).

    What I look for is some stats that are much better than existing,tested on existing prototypes with good results, and announced for the model due out the next year with an actual price tag.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    The other frustration with following battery/energy technology is that even if a big 'breakthroughs' does work out as expected, it takes 5-10 years to go from the lab to market, and that's on the optimistic side. During that development time, the energy demand consistently goes up every year, so by the time we actually get 'better batteries' we're also using more energy, resulting in a net change of "not much".

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    Toyota are already working on bringing a solid state battery to mass production. This article is about making the road to mass production easier. So this might actually happen pretty fast. If it's for real, of course.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Yes, I think it was in the news last week (or maybe earlier) and I was a bit skeptical myself. But I might be too cynical in that Toyota seemed to make a bad bet and not commit to BEVs early on, and they might just need some positive news. I also don't think they've actually shown anything yet.

    I don't know if the promised range increase will actually be that important, especially if you can end up charging much faster when you do need to make a longer trip, but rather the much greater energy density will mean lighter cars leading to better efficiency and making small BEVs much more feasible.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent