Toyota is readying a slew of new batteries for a wave of next-generation electric vehicles and completely overhauling its vaunted production system for even more efficient manufacturing.
SUSONO, Japan — Solid-state batteries for electric vehicle with ranges of 1,440 kilometres or more. Software operating systems that update automatically. Futuristic factories where cars drive themselves through final assembly. Ultra-slick aerodynamics developed through rocket science.
An all-day executive briefing drove home Toyota's point that, contrary to being left behind, it has both the technology and the production system needed to deliver industry-leading EVs from 2026. Keiji Kaita, Toyota's top battery guru and the president of its carbon neutral advanced engineering development center, outlined five new batteries that will debut by the end of the decade.
These power packs will underpin a new lineup of next-generation EVs now being developed through a blank-sheet approach by the automaker's newly created BEV Factory division. The vehicles will have new batteries, platforms, software systems and production methods, comprising what CEO Koji Sato calls Step 3 of Toyota's EV rollout plan.
The designers plan to adopt a technology used to protect rockets traveling at speeds of Mach 30. The technique creates an air film around the surface of the vehicle that helps reduce wind resistance. Achieving low-cost, efficient production of these EVs is crucial to Toyota's plan. To that end, Toyota is also rethinking its vaunted production system from scratch.
"This is overwhelmingly faster," Yoshio Nakamura, deputy chief of global production, told Automotive News."The point is, we will have a high level of freedom."
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