Tesla Should Be Worried About Toyota
Forget the 4680; this is the battery breakthrough we have been waiting for.
Toyota was once the face of sustainable transport. Back in 2008, Leonardo DiCaprio used a hybrid Toyota Prius to arrive at the Oscars, shocking the entertainment world and making environmentalism just a bit cooler. But since then, they have massively lagged behind. They avoided the EV revolution like the plague and reluctantly released their first proper EV, the bZ4X, last year, a full 10 years after Tesla’s industry-leading Model S. But, behind closed doors, Toyota has been working on a technology that could help them leapfrog the entire EV industry in one bound and put them ahead of even Tesla. This holy grail of EV technology is a 745-mile capable solid-state battery that can fully charge in 10 minutes and is twice as energy-dense as current cells! So, does this mean Toyota could be a Tesla killer?
Let’s start with what a solid-state battery is. The difference between our current cells and solid-state batteries is quite simple: current cells store their energy in liquid or paste-like electrolytes, whereas solid-state batteries use solid electrolytes, typically made of ceramics. This means they are far more energy-dense and lightweight, as solid electrolytes can contain more energy per volume. Solid electrolytes also tend to have…
