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Toyota unveils battery, production innovations for new EVs
Toyota Motor (NYSE:) has unveiled a range of technologies to improve the range, performance and cost of electric vehicles (EVs) that it plans to introduce in the second half of the decade.
The Japanese automaker, which has been criticised by some investors for being slow to roll out battery electric models, said it expects annual sales of 1.5 million EVs by 2026.
Toyota released a technology briefing, including details on new solid-state batteries, a day before its annual shareholder meeting where governance, climate lobbying and EV strategy are under scrutiny.
Here are Toyota’s key announcements:
BATTERY TECHNOLOGY
Toyota has a number of initiatives to improve battery performance and reduce cost, and said it was ready to move from research toward production of solid-state batteries. Such batteries promise more energy density and shorter charging times than lithium-ion batteries now in use.
It aims to sell vehicles powered by solid-state batteries by 2027 or 2028.
Toyota said, without providing details, it had achieved a “technological breakthrough” overcoming problems previously identified with solid-state batteries’ durability.
It also said it would have a more energy-dense battery available for an EV in 2026 that has a driving range of 1,000 km on a single charge, a charge time of 20 minutes or less, and cost reduction of 20% versus its current EV, the bZ4X.
In addition, Toyota said it would produce a range of lower-cost lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for use in 2026 or 2027. It said it was targeting a 20% increase in range and a 40% reduction in cost compared to the bZ4X.
PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Toyota said it would use Giga casting, a production process pioneered by Tesla (NASDAQ:), to reduce the complexity and cost of manufacturing its next-generation EVs.
Giga presses reduce complex welded assemblies in car manufacturing with a single, massive aluminium die-casting machine to streamline production.
Toyota said more flexible assembly lines with self-propelled vehicles and digital technology could cut its factory investment cost for new vehicles by half and reduce other fixed costs, including labour.
AERODYNAMICS
Toyota said it was working with rocket designers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to improve the aerodynamics of EVs and to extend their range.
The lower the coefficient of drag – a measure of the wind resistance on the car – the more efficient a car is on the road.
Tesla’s best-selling Model Y, for instance, has a coefficient of drag of about 0.23. The Lucid Air, a luxury performance EV from U.S. peer Lucid Motors that starts from $138,000 in the U.S., has a market-leading coefficient of 0.197.
Toyota said it could achieve a 0.1-level coefficient using Mitsubishi technology.
TECHNOLOGY FROM SUPPLIERS
Toyota said it would introduce smaller “eAxles” that combine electric motors and the components to propel an EV, from suppliers including Aisin and Denso.
It said those components would add range to EVs and increase cargo space in the rear of the car, where the drive unit sits.
Toyota also said it was developing silicon carbide wafers for semiconductors that would be used in next-generation EV inverters, technology also being developed by Denso.
Those chips promise to reduce power loss to the electric motor of an EV by up to 50%, Toyota said.
CAIRO (Reuters) – Palestinian militant group Hamas has approved a list of 34 hostages presented by Israel to be exchanged in a possible ceasefire deal, a group official told Reuters on Sunday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, also reiterated that any deal is contingent upon reaching an agreement on an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire.
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Israeli airstrikes killed at least 14 Palestinians in three separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, taking the weekend death toll to 102, Palestinian medics said, as U.S. and Arab mediators stepped up efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal.
Health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed five people in a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while another airstrike killed four others in Jabalia in the northern edge of the enclave, where Israeli forces have been operating for three months.
Later on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike hit a police station in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing five people, medics said. It was not immediately clear if all the dead were policemen.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants operating from the humanitarian area in Khan Younis, and an Islamic Jihad militant who carried out attacks from the humanitarian area in Dier al-Balah.
Earlier on Sunday, the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed at least 88 Palestinians and wounded more than 200 others in the past 24 hours.
In Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, relatives and neighbours rushed to the Zuhd family’s house, which was struck by an Israeli airstrike late on Saturday, killing seven people, medics said. The search continued on Sunday morning for four others believed to be trapped under the rubble.
A hand belonging to one of the dead could be seen amongst the ruins, with the rest of his body buried under collapsed masonry. Three men removed dirt with their bare hands to retrieve bodies and search for possible survivors.
“Three young men, the son’s wife, and three children are still here. We retrieved this cousin of mine. Another cousin has been martyred and is now in the hospital. Approximately 11 people have been martyred here,” Ammar Zuhd, a relative, told Reuters.
ISRAEL SAYS DOZENS OF HAMAS MILITANTS KILLED
The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that its forces had attacked more than 100 targets across Gaza over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants. It said it had also destroyed rocket launching sites that had been used to wage attacks on Israel in recent days.
Later on Sunday, it said it killed an Islamic Jihad militant last week in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza. Sa’ed Saeed Zaki Dahnoun participated in the Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel, the military said.
A renewed push is underway to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, and return Israeli hostages who were taken to Gaza, before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Israeli negotiators were dispatched on Friday to resume talks in Doha brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, while U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which is helping to mediate, urged Hamas to agree to a deal.
Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement as soon as possible, but it was unclear how close the two sides were.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants on communities in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign, with the stated goal of eradicating Hamas, has leveled swathes of the enclave, driving most people from their homes, and has killed 45,805 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi. Additional reporting by Dawoud Abu Alkas in Gaza and Maytaal Angel in Jerusalem; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
By Rich McKay
(Reuters) – Millions of Americans from the Plains to the East Coast faced the threat of blizzards, heavy snow, treacherous ice and freezing rain through Monday, the National Weather Service said on Saturday.
Governors in Kentucky and Virginia declared states of emergency ahead of the winter storm.
“The storm is still taking shape,” meteorologist Rich Bann of the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center said Saturday evening. “But this thing has multiple hazards from heavy snows in the Plains to significant icing covering roads farther south.”
He added that more than 60 million people in the U.S. were affected by winter weather warnings, watches or advisories this weekend.
A swath extending eastward from Nebraska and Kansas through Ohio, Indiana, southwestern Pennsylvania and northwestern Virginia could see from 1 inch (2.54 cm) to 1 foot (30 cm) of snow. Ice could knock out power lines and cause widespread outages.
A wintry mess of freezing rain and ice will hit southern Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee on Sunday, Bann said, likely making roads hazardous and downing power lines.
“It’ll be nearly impossible to drive in some areas,” he said.
The Kansas City International Airport in Missouri closed temporarily on Saturday afternoon due to rapid ice accumulation, officials said on social media.
Bann said that the storm should move past the East Coast and into the Atlantic Ocean by late on Monday, but a new blast of Arctic air will bring frigid cold to the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. by the middle of next week.
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