Toyota Working On Advanced Electric Car Battery That Could Improve Range By 15%

The performance of lithium-ion battery technology has constrained the growth and development of electric vehicles because of its restricted characteristics. However, taking that challenge head on, Toyota recently announced it aspires to develop a greater electric-car battery that will allow its vehicles to offer up to 15 per cent greater range and battery life than they do currently.

Hisao Yamashige, a battery technology researcher at Toyota, said, "Lithium-ion battery is a key technology for electrifying cars, and there is a clear need, going forward, for improving this technology and its performance even more."

The Japanese carmaker that lay the groundwork for hybrid technology has collaborated with a Japanese publicly-financed laboratory and four universities in Japan as it braces to roll out an all-electric battery car by about 2020. In fact, Toyota engineers recently had a breakthrough - they were able to better see in "real time" how lithium ions moved inside electrodes.

Yamashige explained this should lead to new designs that prevent lithium ions from moving unevenly and bunching up in the electrodes, a phenomenon that currently limits the life of lithium-ion batteries and vehicle range. It can also be a factor in causing overheating, he said.

Source: Toyota Working On Advanced Electric Car Battery That Could Improve Range By 15%