Car manufacturing giants are in a race to offer new technologies to vehicle buyers. Nissan Leaf 2018 will launch in September a one-pedal model that combines the accelerator and brake in one. Tesla delivered the first 30 units on Friday of the Model 3 that uses the owner’s smartphone to unlock and lock the door, and start the motor.

Gineersnow reported that Japanese automobile giant Toyota is developing a new line of Electric Cars for 2022 that would use new battery technology, Reuters reported. The new electric cars will use solid-state batteries in which the electrolytes are solid rather than liquid.

That kind of battery will feature higher efficiency and speedy charging time.

Addressing drawbacks of electric cars

Despite the growing popularity of electric cars because of its contribution to a cleaner environment, insofar as the users are concerned, EVs have two drawbacks compared to fuel-powered cars. One drawback is the shorter distance an EV travels compared to a gas-powered vehicle. Another drawback is the longer period of time it takes to charge a battery compared to gassing up a tank.

According to experts in battery charging technology, a solid-state battery will charge less than one hour. When Toyota’s future solid-state battery would be used to power electric vehicles, charging time will be faster compared to the current lithium-ion batteries that use conventional charging equipment, Autocar India noted.

The Chunichi Shimbun Daily placed fully charging of solid-state batteries between two and three minutes, while to fully charge the current lithium-ion battery is between 20 and 30 minutes.

Moreover, studies indicate that solid-state batteries are capable of holding three times more energy compared to the conventional lithium-ion batteries, plus longer useful life.

Toyota said it is currently working on research and development of solid-state batteries. It would include production engineering of those kinds of batteries with the aim of making it available commercially by the early 2020s. The battery is expected to travel beyond 299 kilometers on one charge.

Ages away

Christopher Richter, an auto analyst at CLSA, however, is a bit wary of the upcoming battery technology from Toyota because 2022 is five years away.

He pointed out that “2022 is ages away, and a lot can change in the meantime,” he said.

Similarly, Autocar UK noted that despite the high potential of the various next-generation batteries, it has some challenges and have not reached the level of the current liquid batteries. Its current stage is proving performance in principle in laboratories only.