Toyota thinks it has solved two of the main hurdles with mass electric vehicle adoption: battery range and charging time. Toyota's new electric vehicle battery will offer a 745-mile range and only take 10 minutes to charge in what could be a breakthrough in electric vehicle adoption.
Toyota announced this week that it is close to manufacturing a new solid-state battery that could double the range of most electric vehicles-at 745 miles. The batteries could reach the market by 2027 or 2028, helping to catapult electric vehicles into mainstream use.
Battery range and charging time have continued to be a barrier to mass EV adoption, with consumers balking at the idea of driving a limited number of miles before spending significant time recharging.
While battery range and charge time would go a long way to easing car buyers' reservations about electric vehicle adoption, EV makers will still have to battle another reservation that consumers have with electric vehicles-subpar charging infrastructure, which polls show has dampened enthusiasm for EVs in the United States.
According to recent data, the United States has about 57,000 public charging stations-less than 10% of the number of public charging stations that China has.
For now, the battle for car buyers' hearts and minds is proving to be an uphill battle, with 74% of Americans feeling that gas-powered vehicles are better for trips of 250 miles or more-a threshold that if crossed, would require most EV owners to charge up, according to a recent The Post-UMD poll.
The current driving range of most electric vehicles is around 300 miles.
While the breakthrough in battery technology could be a game changer for the EV industry, challenges remain on the manufacturing side, with solid-state batteries posing difficulties with the assembly process, with cathode and anode cells needing to be precisely and quickly stacked, Toyota has said.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More