[ad_1]
Toyota to invest 1.5 trillion yen ($ 13.6 billion) in battery development and supply over the next decade as the world’s largest automaker aims to stay ahead of the race for electric cars and cheaper and more durable hybrids.
Executives said the company, which has a partnership with Tesla’s main battery supplier, Panasonic, also remains on track to develop the next generation of dry batteries by 2025.
Dry batteries offer faster charge times, longer run times, and are safer than the current generation of batteries that use liquid solutions, although Toyota said the shorter lifespan is a serious drawback.
“We cannot be optimistic yet and there are challenges,” Toyota chief technology officer Masahiko Maeda said, according to the Financial Times, which was seen by Al Arabiya.net.
Other global heavyweights, including Samsung, BMW and Honda, are bringing the technology to market around the same time.
To switch to electric vehicles, rival Volkswagen has placed a $ 14 billion battery order from Northvolt to cover its orders for the next decade. The German automaker has also announced that it will build or open six battery factories across Europe by 2030.
Geely said it will spend € 5 billion to build a new battery factory in Ganzhou, while Stellants will spend more than € 30 billion over the next four years to develop electric vehicles.
Toyota did not disclose any battery factory plans or the geography of its investment plan, but Masamichi Okada, chief product officer, said the group would spend nearly 1,000 billion yen to build a total of 70 lines. manufacturing of electric vehicles by 2030.
By leveraging its strength in vehicle and battery development, the company also aims to halve the cost of batteries in the second half of the 2020s.
Toyota plans to sell 8 million electric cars by 2030, of which 2 million will be battery cars and fuel cell vehicles.
Source link
