Toyota's Solid-State Battery Will Crush Tesla Li-Ion Updates

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Apple or Android? Tesla or Toyota? New battery technology coming from an automotive world leader is sure to bring a massive change to the EV revolution.

If you talk to anyone who has been a die-hard Apple user since the inception of the iPhone, you will come to learn something about them. Apple is the end-all of smartphone technology. Android users disagree entirely with that, claiming that Android-based phones are far superior, giving them more customization and features.

While that debate will rage on eternally, another fight is happening in a different technological realm, automotive. It is the battle over the electric car and the technology surrounding it, particularly battery technology.

If you have ever met a Tesla fan, you will know they are like Apple users, and many of them probably are. They admire the hard work and thought put into the Tesla vehicles by co-founder Elon Musk. They look at him as some form of tech leader that has graced their every waking moment with the hope of a better future.

The thing with Tesla owners is they are very rooted in everything about the company. They are the early adopters and will be Tesla owners for the rest of their lives, just like Apple users.

So what happens when something else comes out to challenge the status quo? What happens when another car company comes out with something that is ultimately better? We are entering a time in history where we see this happen right before our eyes. Most just do not understand it, though.

Toyota And Tesla the Apple/Android Of The Car World
Toyota motor has been around for decades longer than Tesla. Hailed often as a premium car company, Toyota is a brand that people know and trust. In my opinion, they are more like Apple, while Tesla is more like Android.

Update: After today's decision by the Japanese government Toyota has no choice but to follow Tesla or chart its own EV path.

Some of you may say this is total heresy, but hear me out. Toyota started the real EV revolution back before GM killed the EV-1. Hybrids are synonymous with Prius, just as electric cars are with Tesla. Apple gave us the first real smartphone. No, your lame Blackberry does not count. Toyota gave us the first real hybrid, which is part EV.

When Tesla entered the scene, electric cars were a neat idea, but most people thought it would fail, based on what GM had done. To me, it was like Android first starting out. Competing in a new and mostly uncharted space with competition from more prominent car companies that overlooked it.

Android, now like Tesla, has become a significant player in the market with many different Android OS brands. Apple, on the other hand, is still playing the iPhone game and sticking to it. Like Toyota, with the hybridization of their fleet, they rely on hybrids to rule the empire. All the time, watching what Tesla is doing and waiting for the opportune moment to strike, and strike hard.

Toyota And The Solid State Battery Revolution
Tesla battery day, in my eyes, was a huge success. Gaining a 56% increase in overall vehicle efficiency is absolutely astounding. Better batteries that cost less to produce and are less harmful to the environment are significant steps in complete EV adoption in the next 10 years.

As neat as battery day was for Tesla and all the fanboys (and girls), it is nothing compared to Toyota's announcement. The solid-state battery that Toyota promises to bring out next year will wipe the floor with Tesla battery tech.

Think about it. A battery that can fully charge in 10 minutes go farther is safer and better for the environment is a total no-brainer. It will destroy everything about lithium tech, no question. If there was ever a time in history where an EV revolution would take over on a massive scale, the time is now.

Tesla currently cannot produce more than 3% of what Toyota does, which also means once Toyota is at its production level, Tesla better hope they have a prayer and a fan base that will stay with them.

Why Toyota Will Succeed
I have been around many different Tesla models. I have been around many different Toyota models. Here is what I can tell you from not only my experience but that of others.

Toyota builds a better vehicle. Is Toyota a perfect car company? No, that does not exist. There are many things about Toyota that I wish were different. However, when it comes to longevity, Toyota builds a vehicle that lasts. The attention to detail with Tesla over the paint, weatherstripping, and car construction is somewhat lacking, a lot.

It is not to say that Tesla cannot build a vehicle; they simply need more time to refine their process and dial the cars in. Toyota will succeed because they have been in the game for longer than Tesla. Toyota knows the market better and has more established manufacturing facilities.

Toyota has loyal engineers and decades of research and development. Tesla does not have the resources that Toyota does and may not for quite a few more years.

Toyota will succeed because they are incredibly strategic. No move is ever made in the Toyota realm without serious time spent researching and doing a cost-benefit analysis. They are the Sensei to the Tesla apprentice.

Conclusion
When it comes to building a vehicle, I will buy a Toyota over a Tesla for the quality factor. If I plan on spending $40,000 or more on a new car, I want it to last. I think Tesla is going in the right direction but is not there yet. No one even knows why their company value is so high when they cannot even turn profits regularly.

Toyota is a company that does not do anything until they know for sure it will work. Toyota went longer than every other manufacturer before putting Lithium-Ion batteries in their hybrids. Why? Toyota believed it was not developed enough yet.

Thinking on that idea, Toyota is now rolling out a solid-state battery. This bit of knowledge tells me that Toyota has been researching this for years and kept it under wraps. They are ready to present the world with the next big thing in transportation.

Tesla may be the first car to be synonymous with EV, but Toyota is the wise Sensei who keeps showing the apprentice new things.

Until next time! Have a pleasant holiday and stay safe out there. Check out what is happening to Honda Element Owners

Check out this wild new battery tech that Tesla has and why it will forever change the auto industry.

Peter Neilson is an automotive consultant specializing in electric cars and hybrid battery technologies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Automotive Service Technology from Weber State University. Peter can be reached on Linkedin and you can tweet him at The_hybrid_guy on Twitter. Find his page on Facebook at Certified Auto Consulting. Read more of Peter's stories at Toyota news coverage on Torque News. Search Toyota Prius Torque News for more in depth Prius coverage from our reporters.

Submitted by Mark (not verified) on December 23, 2020 - 10:29PM

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Of course this article was written before the rumor that Apple was developing a self driving car with most likely solid state batteries.
If true, the world is about to be upended by a fantastically deep pocketed player with a deep expertise in supply chains, production logistics, user experience, quality and a complete ecosystem for the product to inhabit.

Doubt this highly. Apple can't even make a phone that lasts through the end of the day. They're going to create batteries? And an entire vehicle? And they've been working on it now for 6 years already and have 5 years to go? Research Titan.

Apple has NO experience in the Car market!
They know how to build phones\laptops & tablets, but cars are a completely different product!
Yes, they have $$, but that never guarantees success!!
I would never buy an Apple car.. (and Yes I have had Apple products before!)

I agree with you. If Apple announced they were going into the rocket business would you think with all the experience they have in making phones, etc they could make better rockets than SpaceX.

If SpaceX announced they were going into the rocket business would you think with all the experience they have in making nothing, etc they could make better rockets than ULA.

Don't SpaceX use Russian built rockets? Specifically the Russia's RD-180 liquid-fueled rocket engine.
To fair, building & designing a rocket engine from scratch doesn't make much sense when there are others that can already do it better and cheaper.

Don't SpaceX use Russian built rockets? Specifically the Russia's RD-180 liquid-fueled rocket engine.
To fair, building & designing a rocket engine from scratch doesn't make much sense when there are others that can already do it better and cheaper.

You are joking, surely. The SpaceX Raptor and Merlin engines are in house designed and manufactured. ULA I believe are the ones using Russian engines

The richest company on the world. Could change everything quick. Electric car not complicated as engines transmissions oil...and thousands of detailed. You will see he revolutionized

If Apple decides to go into the car business, wouldn't they just buy a company that is on the bleeding edge of battery technology like Quantum Scape, instead of trying to manufacture their own batteries?

Submitted by David (not verified) on December 24, 2020 - 2:16AM

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Except that Mr Toyoda recently stated that they aren’t interested in EVs to any great degree, they see them as a bad thing.

Toyota is Nokia, Tesla is Apple. That’s a closer comparison.

You wouldn't be all that interested in EV's at the present time if you were making a lot of money on all of your ICEV's, couldn't supply all of your electrified vehicles with batteries due to high demand, and were developing a solid-state battery you expected to be available when EV's are on the verge of becoming popular enough to be profitable.

You don't understand the big picture. Toyota is going to put the powerplant on the vehicle. The solid state battery will work together with hydrogen to make by-far the greenest vehicle one could conceptualize. This is beyond Tesla in so many ways. You'll see it soon.

Yeah... everyone is clamouring for a rare and expensive new fuel that is also super difficult to store (requires ultra cold storage or carbon-fiber tanks).

Right now, an electrical infrastructure needs essentially a few 220 outlets, and even then it has taken decades to roll out.

How long do you think it will be before you can add hydrogen to your range-challenged EV? Meanwhile Tesla rolls out 600 mile range cars that refuel in your garage.

I believe you are wrong. The reason for that is the fact that you will have to sequester hydrogen that is to say storage. And not only that the entire infrastructure. also including the fact that you will have to actually produce hydrogen on a massive scale. I just don’t see the economics of this process.

You don't understand the big picture. How is hydrogen cleaner when nearly all commercial production is made from Natural gas and Coal? And please, don't regurgitate the water to Hydrogen chemistry class from high school. There are currently no mass hydrogen station using this tech (but one of them did blow up in Scandinavia). Even Nikolas and their grandiose plans, just signed a deal with a naturals gas supplier to ensure they get enough hydrogen, so they no long need to use a landscape and gravity to more their truck. And did you happen to forget who build the all EV powerplant and battery system for the Rv4? Here is a hint, starts with a T. Never mind that Tesla just announce their path to a sub $60/Kw battery tech. It is not beyond Tesla in anyway, If anything Tesla stocks paid for my solar install this year and a very and healthy deposit on the truck when it comes out.

To put Tesla in perspective from my view:  Short-term gains with day-trading TSLA trading has paid in full (AFTER state and federal short-term gains tax) the following:  2021 Lucid Air Grand Touring Edition with 504-mile range, 2021 tri-motor Cybertruck, 2021  model Y - LR with FSD, 2021 Model S Plaid, 2 Mercedes 2016 used Electric Smart cars, and the Founder's edition 2022-2023 Tesla Roadster.  It took a lot of nerve glued to my computer desk reading all news on EVs and Tesla for much of 2020, and medical IBS acquisition from the stress, but it all worked out. I just recently moved the remaining 77k funds into ARKG and ARKK.  It also was a good distraction from the memories of my divorce.
It is a shame that Tesla has an unethical attitude about its responsibilities to customers because the cars themselves are terrific.  They also do NOT have enough service-centers throughout the USA.  Their Ai FSD safety features are unbelievable and is certainly the future of automobiles.   I'll be sure to sell each Tesla well before their warranties run out unless the 2021 model year Tesla vehicles turn out to be trustworthy/reliable. Or, by then Toyota will probably have come out with their newly developed solid-state battery. After owning 5 Toyota/Lexus cars, I am totally sold on Toyota as a reliable well-engineered vehicle manufacturer. I do sincerely hope that Elon can keep on chasing his dreams, despite his minor shortcomings.

Economics 101, the most efficient process wins. The hydrogen ecosystem is only marginally more efficient than the fossil fuels ecosystem. Battery electric is at least twice as efficient.

It's hard to understand the truth. Toyota has no idea how to create this supposed solid state battery, has no idea how to produce batteries inexpensively, and we don't know anything about its cycle life or real world testing yet. This is still and for a long time will be considered unfeasible for the mass market. Not to mention the flaiing dealer network that doesn't want to sell electric cars or the infrastructure issues. Toyota is just a load of crap. If they 50,000 solid state battery vehicles (likely all that will be available to them) a year does anyone think they'll make that big a difference or even be supported for 10min fast charging?? This is just a lab experiment and this is iteration one. What we're looking at now with Tesla is mass market iteration three. Without mentioning the unrelenting minor updates to each iteration. We're basically looking at a 10 year old trying to develop batteries for the first time(Prius doesn't really count a battery development) that a 30 year has been developing since they were born.

Hear hear!
Finally some sense in this Toyota solid state battery story.
How can you believe Toyota secretly change the EV market in 2021?
This solid state battery works wonders on paper. In real life it will take years of research and development.
There are some other issue with Toyota as well, they don't have proper experience with software or fsd.
Toyota is betting on expensive hydrogen and to be developed solid state batteries to fuel up their next prius.
Toyota is like a big ship that can't turn the wheel quick enough, their leadership are old people waiting for their pension.

Mr. Toyoda doesn't really hate EVs. He just thinks rushing EVs out right now would be opposite of protecting the environment, at least for Japan. So he advises the government against the idea of abandoning ICE too soon. It needs to be a gradual transition, but from what I see I don't think Mr. Toyoda hates EVs at all.

My RAV4 hybrid from Toyota was big disappointment. Toyota had something going with plug in Prius, but like GM they are dragging their feet because within Corp engineering hierarchy are entrenched fuel burner guys. Tesla’s Maxwell capacitor battery tech as short term storage coupled to lithium seems like near term practical solution.

Submitted by Michael Hutcheson (not verified) on December 24, 2020 - 2:27AM

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Samsung is considered the SS leader, although Toyota in the mix. Quantumscape a wildcard.
SS will take several years and in the meantime Tesla will lower their battery costs by half, making it far harder for SS to be commercially successful.
It seems likely that SS will be the eventual dominant battery technology, but that path and the winners are uncertain. What makes you think that Tesla isn't in the SS mix as well?

Submitted by Rob (not verified) on December 24, 2020 - 2:56AM

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As a battery researcher I can tell you Toyota's battery prototype may be exciting, but solid state is a decade from mass manufacturing. Solid state has many issues including low temperature charging, scalability, and cost. Ultimately solid state will most likely be a niche product and not a mass scale and broadly used EV battery because of these difficulties. Tesla is working on battery tech that can be scaled massively and they are now the largest battery company in the world, not Toyota who dismissed full EV and Tesla at their own loss(early shareholder, missed the massive increase in valuation)