Toyota, Honda And Nissan Join Forces In Japan For Solid-State Batteries

Until a few years ago, Japanese battery makers dominated the world's market when it came to both manufacturing and technology in the electric mobility battery space and especially when it came to Lithium Ion batteries. Over the years though, with Chinese manufacturing coming into the foray, Japan lost significant market share. Now, to gain back market share, especially when it comes to future technologies, a Japanese government program, LIBTEC - Lithium Ion Battery Technology and Evaluation Center has been formed to accelerate development of solid state batteries. Japanese automakers, Honda, Toyota and Nissan have all come together as a part of this program in order to benefit from it for their electric and hybrid mobility projects.

The program has also received a 1.6 billion yen (Rs. 94 Crore) from the Japanese government as funding to accelerate research. Also a part of the program are global battery manufacturing giants, Panasonic and GS Yuasa along with automotive component manufacturers Asahi Kasei and Toray Industries.

(Solid-state batteries as compared to Li-ion ones are lighter and store twice as much power)

As compared to Lithium Ion batteries, which essentially use a liquid electrolytic solution to regulate the flow of current, solid-state batteries opt for a solid electrolyte in the form of a electricity conductive chemical mixture that allows the flow of current between cells (or technically between the anode and the cathode). That said, they are comparatively much lighter and have roughly about double the power as compared to a lithium ion battery. For example, while a Li Ion battery can give up to about 400 kms of range on an electric car today, the same number and size of solid state batteries would offer close to 800 kms of range. And to add, solid state batteries are also much quicker to charge from empty to full as compared to their lithium ion counterparts, which could do away with the biggest problem that electric cars face today - range anxiety.