Toyota Plans Long Range, Fast Charging Electric Car By 2022

Toyota is not giving up on the hydrogen fuel cell technology that powers the Mirai, but is busy working in the background on an all electric car with solid state batteries that offer long range and fast recharging. The plan is to introduce the car, which will be built on an all new chassis, to the Japanese market in 2022. Toyota spokesperson Kayo Doi tells Japanese daily news source Chunichi Shimbun the company will not comment on specific product plans but does intend to commercialize solid state batteries by the early 2020s.

Solid State Batteries Are The Future

No one doubts that solid state batteries are the future. Replacing the liquid electrolyte found in today’s lithium ion batteries will eliminate the risk of fire and explosion associated with current battery technology. That danger, while low, remains a concern for many people considering the purchase of an electric car.

To limit such risks, electric cars today must use sophisticated cooling systems to stabilize the temperature inside battery packs. Such systems add cost, weight, and bulk to the cars. Solid state batteries will not need such elaborate cooling systems, which will help bring down the cost of building an electric car. As an added bonus, they are capable of being recharged in much less time than a conventional lithium ion battery.

Researchers such as John Goodenough have been trying to build a robust, inexpensive solid state battery for decades. Toyota saying it will do so is one thing. Actually doing it is quite another. Israeli startup StoreDot says it has a solid state battery with a range of 300 miles that recharges in 5 minutes. Henrik Fisker claims his new EMotion electric car will go more than 400 miles on a single charge and then recharge in just 9 minutes. That car is set to hit the road in 2019.

New Electric Car Division At Toyota

Toyota created a new partnership last year that combines talent from Toyota Industries Corporation, Aisin Seiki Company, Denso Corporation, and Toyota Motor Company to design an electric car. The slimmed down unit began life with only 4 people — one from each corporatation — in order to trim bureaucratic “noise” and produce quick results.

Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said at the time, “Over these past few years, which we have positioned for strengthening our planting of seeds for the future, we have taken such measures as establishing the Toyota Research Institute, made Daihatsu a fully owned subsidiary, and have begun work to established an internal company responsible for compact vehicles for emerging markets. The new organizational structure for EVs is a part of this effort. As a venture company that will specialize in its field and embrace speed in its approach to work, it is my hope that it will serve as a pulling force for innovation in the work practices of Toyota and the Toyota Group.”

China Wags The Dog

Stirring words. Now to see how they translate into reality. Toyota, like all major car makers, is focused on the booming automobile market in China. It plans to introduce an electrified version of its C-HR sport utility vehicle using conventional lithium ion batteries there in 2019, spurred in part by the insistence of the Chinese government that at least 10% of the new cars sold in the country be EVs by that date. It also brought its highly imaginative Concept-i to the 2017 CES show in Las Vegas last January.

Toyota’s goal of building electric cars by 2022 is laudable, but a lot of water will have gone under the bridge by that time and the rest of the world’s automakers will not be sitting on their hands in the meantime. It would not be smart to count Toyota out, but their horse for the EV sweepstakes is more than a little late leaving the barn.

Source: Reuters

Volkswagen Restructures, Adds Dedicated Electric Car Division

Rocked by a diesel emissions cheating scandal that has cut Volkswagen’s share price by one third and cost investors billions, Volkswagen head Herbert Diess has restructured the company into four new divisions. “We expect these changes to bring about a major acceleration in (vehicle) development,” Diess said. The new structure “strengthens cooperation across all functions and also increases the profitability of the brand.”

According to Reuters, three of those divisions will deal exclusively with small cars, like the Up!, compact cars like the Golf, and larger cars like the Passat. Each division also has crossovers and SUVs within its mandate. The important news, though, for those hoping VW can pull out of its tailspin, is that the development of all Volkswagens with batteries will now be the responsibility of one group of employees with one general manager.

The person Volkswagen has hired to run the battery car division is Christian Senger, who was previously the head of electronics and autonomous driving technology at Continental, a major supplier to the automotive industry. He began with Continental in 2012, after two years at BMW, where he worked on that company’s i3 and i8 vehicles.

Volkswagen showed off the first concept car built on its all new Modular Electric Toolkit, known internally as MEB, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month. The BUDD-e concept is a re-interpretation of the iconic VW Microbus that became the vehicle of choice for hippies everywhere in the 60’s. The BUDD-e features a 101 kWh lithium ion battery and is said to have a range of nearly 300 miles.

A “toolkit” is industry slang for a common chassis platform that can be used to build a variety of different cars on the same assembly line. That saves time and development costs, which helps a company operate more profitably. The concept was first developed by world renowned and long time Volkswagen/Audi engineer Ulrich Hackenberg, who departed the company quite suddenly last December. The BUDD-e may be several years from production. Certainly, its battery is nowhere near ready for manufacture.

Senger will be tasked with propelling Volkswagen forward into the age of electric cars as quickly as possible, so the company can move on from its embarrassing diesel emissions debacle. Certainly the sooner it can show customers and regulators that it is working hard to redeem itself the better. Will it ever reclaim its title as world’s largest car company? That remains to be seen. But if it accomplished it once, it could very well do so again.