Toyota makes breakthrough on batteries
TOYOTA Motor has developed a new way of observing the movements of tiny particles in a battery used to power electric vehicles – an advance it says will help boost their cruise range by 10 percent to 15 percent.
Toyota engineer Hisao Yamashige explained on Thursday the complex method for tracking the lithium ions, which are tiny particles in lithium-ion batteries, also used in laptops and smartphones.
Increasing cruise range is the biggest obstacle for electric vehicles, especially because powering stations aren’t as common as petrol stations.
Fuel cells
Toyota is more bullish about fuelcell vehicles, which are expensive but can deliver the same cruise range as petrol engines. Yamashige said there was no change to that overall company policy.
Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid, has no pure electric vehicles in its lineup since production of its electric iQ subcompact and other earlier models were discontinued after they only sold the models in small numbers.
But all the world’s automakers are working on electric vehicles. Japanese rival Nissan Motor leads with its Leaf, which boasts a range of about 160km on a single charge. The Nissan-Renault alliance accounts for about half the world’s pure electric vehicles sold.
Toyota’s new technology would allow the company to test out various materials and battery structures, and an improved electric vehicle was being planned for the commercial market within the next “several years”, said Yoshinori Suga, a department manager.
The tests are being carried out in collaboration with Japanese research organization Riken, using its high-intensity X-ray facility.
Toyota will present its observation method at a battery symposium in Japan later this month, sharing it with other automakers, although not its findings. – ANA