Toyota Motor has developed a secondary electric car battery that can last up to 1,000 km per charge, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Monday. That is five times the energy storage capacity of existing batteries.
Toyota came up with the prototype in collaboration with the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization. The new battery is based on a solid core and its simplified structure means it does not require fire-retardant materials. It eliminates the disadvantages of lithium-ion batteries, which are based on an easily heatable and combustible liquid core.
Toyota plans to improve the battery and commercialize it sometime in 2015 to 2020, the daily added.
Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization predicted it will be possible to cut the battery production cost to one-fifth to one-tenth the current level by 2020.
Mazda has developed a new electrode material that can double battery capacity, NEC a home lithium-ion battery that can last for about 20 years, and Nissan’s Leaf electric car can run 160 km per charge.
