Toyota's solid-state battery technology to debut in 2021

It can be fully charged in 10 minutes, travel 500 kilometers on a single charge, and minimize safety risks. Toyota said that the company's upcoming solid-state battery will not only change electric vehicles , but also change the landscape of the entire industry.

Electric vehicles powered by traditional lithium-ion batteries have a short range on a single charge and a long charging time, but solid-state battery technology has solved these shortcomings well. Under the same conditions, the electric vehicle developed by Toyota has a range of more than twice that of traditional lithium-ion battery-powered vehicles and the charging time is reduced by two-thirds; even in compact cars, the solid-state batteries equipped in the vehicle do not sacrifice interior space. Solid-state batteries are expected to become a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries, reducing the risk of electric vehicle fires and increasing energy density (a measure of the ratio of the energy a battery can provide to the weight of the battery).

Toyota plans to be the first company to sell a solid-state battery car in the early 2020s, with a prototype to be unveiled next year. Toyota has more than 1,000 patents in the field, ranking among the top in the world. Nissan Motor Co. also plans to develop its own solid-state battery to power a non-analog car by 2028.

The shift to new battery technology will also have an impact on companies downstream in the supply chain. Japanese automotive material manufacturers are rushing to build the necessary infrastructure to supply automakers. Mitsui Mining & Smelting will start a pilot plant to produce solid electrolytes for batteries. The plant, located at a research and development center in Saitama Prefecture, will be able to produce tens of tons of solid electrolytes per year starting next year, enough to meet orders for prototype vehicles.

Oil company Idemitsu Kosan is installing solid electrolyte production equipment at its plant in Chiba Prefecture, aiming to start operations next year. Making solid electrolytes requires solidifying sulfides, a specialty of the metal and chemical industries. Sumitomo Chemical is also developing the material.

Japanese manufacturers such as Sony and Panasonic have been pioneers in the commercialization of automotive batteries. But since the late 2000s, Chinese competitors have begun to emerge. CATL is currently the world's largest supplier of lithium-ion batteries, and Japan's Asahi Kasei, which was once the global leader in battery separator materials, lost the crown to Shanghai Energy last year.

As electric vehicles are expected to become very popular as the world gradually reduces carbon dioxide emissions, the Japanese government has been encouraging the development of solid-state batteries, believing that if the current situation remains unchanged, most of the technology related to vehicle performance will rely on China.

The Japanese government is setting up a fund of about 2 trillion yen ($19.2 billion) to support decarbonization technologies. Policymakers will consider using the fund to provide hundreds of billions of yen in subsidies to finance the development of new batteries, with the goal of supporting the development of large-scale production infrastructure in Japan. Since solid-state batteries use lithium, an element with limited global reserves, the government will help obtain the material.

Other countries around the world are following suit. Germany's Volkswagen plans to start producing solid-state batteries as early as 2025 through a joint venture with a US startup. Chinese technology company Qingtao (Kunshan) Energy Development Co., Ltd. will invest 1 billion yuan (US$153 million) in research and development in areas such as solid-state batteries. The investment will start in 2021 and last for three years.