Toyota announces 1.5 trillion yen investment in battery research and development by 2030

On September 8, according to media reports, Toyota announced that it would invest 1.5 trillion yen in the research and development and manufacturing of new energy vehicle batteries by 2030.

It is reported that of the above investment, about 1 trillion yen (58.65 billion yuan) will be mainly used to expand battery production capacity and increase the number of production lines to 70 or more. Toyota plans to increase battery installation to 200 gigawatts per year, more than 30 times the current level.

In addition, there are reports that the investment plan of this fund includes the development of solid-state batteries and next-generation lithium-ion batteries .

For the next generation of lithium-ion batteries, Toyota said that their cost will be half that of the bZ4X battery after 2025. In addition, the company also promised that the bZ4X battery will still be able to maintain 90% of its capacity after ten years.

Toyota is also a frontrunner in mass production of solid-state batteries, which are key to future market success for automakers because they have higher energy density, charge faster and are less likely to catch fire.

Currently, Toyota is still stepping up its research and development, and the official expects to launch solid-state batteries before 2025. In addition to being installed in traditional pure electric vehicles , Toyota is also considering using it in hybrid models.

It is worth noting that Toyota CTO Masahiko Maeda said that he had driven a test prototype equipped with solid-state batteries in 2020.

It is understood that at the Shanghai International Auto Show in April, Toyota stated that it would launch 15 pure electric vehicles by 2025, including the above-mentioned compact SUV model bZ4X.

In May 2021, Toyota announced that it aims to sell 8 million electric and hybrid vehicles, including 2 million pure electric and fuel cell vehicles, by 2030. By region, pure electric or fuel cell vehicles will account for 40% of sales in Europe, 15% in North America, and 10% in Japan.