Toyota Hinting of an All EV Future At Last ?

But the money quote comes toward the end of the article: "Developing lithium-ion batteries for both hybrids and plug-ins will enable us to also produce all-electric cars in the future," Toyoshima told Reuters.

Not "could," not "would," but "will." It may be the first time we've seen a Toyota executive acknowledge that its technology not only could, but likely will, be used for future cars powered solely by batteries.

If that's a precise translation from the Japanese, it marks a significant turn in Toyota's attitudes.


http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1106980_now-toyota-can-make-electric-cars-its-tamed-lithium-ion-batteries-it-says

zilog_jones

I wonder how much battery they could fit in the current Prius if they removed the fuel tank and all that other ICE gubbins? Just fitting in the 8.8 kWh battery for the new PHV was a significant compromise in terms of cabin space (no rear centre seat, much smaller boot).

They would need to redesign the car to accommodate a larger battery, all they have to do is buy it from LG Chem like Gm are doing for the Bolt.

zilog_jones

I don't think that's gonna happen any time soon.

Toyota hybrid batteries are produced by Primearth EV Energy, originally a joint venture between Panasonic and Toyota, but now Toyota have a majority share (80.5%) after Panasonic had to reduce its stake when they purchased Sanyo (anti-trust blah). There is too much of a vested interest in this company for Toyota to seek alternative battery suppliers.

I'm sure the lack of EV's won't have a huge impact on Toyota sales in the next 5 years but after that who knows.

zilog_jones

I meant Toyota using another battery manufacturer isn't going to happen any time soon, not that they won't make a BEV (which I don't really know). PEVE have already been making Li-ion batteries for a few years now, but we don't know what they're capable in terms of larger scale batteries.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

But the money quote comes toward the end of the article: "Developing lithium-ion batteries for both hybrids and plug-ins will enable us to also produce all-electric cars in the future," Toyoshima told Reuters..................

Producing all-electric cars in the future surely means that they'll have some all-electric models in their range.

You'd struggle to think it means Toyota Hinting of an All EV Future At Last.

NIMAN

I think its safe to say that the future of motoring is all-EV, its just 'when'.

It might be 50yrs, 100yrs, but its going to happen.

And if not all-EV, definitely all non-ICE.

NIMAN

NIMAN wrote: »

I think its safe to say that the future of motoring is all-EV, its just 'when'.

Do ya think

NIMAN wrote: »

And if not all-EV, definitely all non-ICE.

Oh, you don't :pac:

BoatMad

NIMAN wrote: »

I think its safe to say that the future of motoring is all-EV, its just 'when'.

It might be 50yrs, 100yrs, but its going to happen.

And if not all-EV, definitely all non-ICE.

the expectation is that its will be all electric, no other non hydrocarbon based option has shown any real promise and no car company is really following anything other then BEV technology

the expectation is that by 2030 the majority of private personal vehicles will be non ICE, i.e. BEV

one thing is sure the 19th century bag of bolts that is the ICE isn't going to survive longer then the steam engine

I think thats bit less then 50 years !!!

serfboard

BoatMad wrote: »

the expectation is that by 2030 the majority of private personal vehicles will be non ICE, i.e. BEV

From what I'm reading, the expectation is that by 2030, the majority of vehicles will be non-private - which is why GM invested half a billion dollars in Lyft.

zilog_jones

BoatMad wrote: »

the expectation is that its will be all electric, no other non hydrocarbon based option has shown any real promise and no car company is really following anything other then BEV technology

Honda and Toyota have invested a significant amount in hydrogen fuel cells, and both have production cars for sale in some markets (Toyota Mirai and Honda Clarity Fuel Cell - latter may only be Japan right now). There's almost a usable infrastructure for the vehicles in Japan (80 stations) - some of which are solar powered self-contained electrolysis units - but still a lot of challenges to make it cheap and practical.

serfboard

zilog_jones wrote: »

Honda and Toyota have invested a significant amount in hydrogen fuel cells, and both have production cars for sale in some markets (Toyota Mirai and Honda Clarity Fuel Cell - latter may only be Japan right now). There's almost a usable infrastructure for the vehicles in Japan (80 stations) - some of which are solar powered self-contained electrolysis units - but still a lot of challenges to make it cheap and practical.

The only possible uses I could see for Fuel Cells would be for trucks - since they need considerably more pulling power than cars.

For cars - the 200+ mile Bolt is coming to the US this year (it's European equivalent, the Ampera-E is coming to Europe next year). Following that we'll have the Tesla 3s with equivalent or higher range and so on.

If Toyota don't get into pure EVs, they will get left behind.