Future Toyota EVs could come with over 1,000-km range, charge time of 10 mins

Toyota Motor has unveiled some innovations for solid-state batteries and other technologies that will help in increasing the range, performance and in decreasing the cost of its future electric vehicles. The automaker revealed its full strategy to compete in the EV market dominated by the likes of Tesla. It has laid its roadmap, covering aspects such as next-generation battery development and a radical redesign of factories.

The Japanese automaker is working on launching its next-gen lithium-ion batteries from 2026 that can offer longer range and quicker charging. To be specific, the OEM is working on developing a future EV that can run beyond 1,000 kilometres on a single charge and juice up in just 10 minutes. This future battery-powered vehicle will have a range much more than what the current long-range version of the lithium-ion-powered Tesla Model Y offers. The world's best-selling EV can drive for about 530 kilometres per charge based on US standards.

Toyota also revealed that it has achieved a "technological breakthrough" in addressing the durability problems in solid-state batteries, saying that it is developing means to mass produce those batteries and commercialize them from 2027 onwards.

Range has been one of the major concerns in transition to EVs and Sslid-state batteries are touted to hold more energy than current liquid electrolyte batteries, thus increasing vehicle range. Automakers and analysts expect them to speed transition to EVs.

Since these batteries are costlier, Toyota is also working on a cheaper alternative - lithium iron phosphate batteries - that have already taken China by the storm.

The OEM is also developing a dedicated EV platform to reduce the cost of new models and a heavily automated assembly line that would do away with the conveyor belt system. In this new assembly line, cars under production would drive themselves through the process.