Featured Toyota's Next-Generation BEV Battery Development and Production Plan Certified by METI

I look forward to finding one in the local dealer . . . inspite of SouthEast Toyota.

Bob Wilson

 

I’m hoping they’ll be pumping out low cost bevs in a few years when my bolt needs replacing

 

Why should your Bolt need replacing in a paltry couple of years? Do you really expect it to deteriorate that quickly, or are you just anticipating radically changed needs by then?

My wife has 15 years on her hybrid Camry and she's still driving it. I finally sold my gen 1 Prius after driving it for 17 years. I only upgraded from the gen4 prime to the gen 5 Prius prime because I wanted the enhanced features of Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 w/Pre-Collision. If possible, she'll be upgrading to a car with a better safety package this year. I woke from a nap on the way back from San Diego a couple of months back just in time to see that she was passing traffic while driving in excess of 100 MPH in a 70 MPH zone on I-5.

I'll trade in my Gen 5 Prime when they come up with a feature that I just can't do without. The current charging and range capabilities of Toyota PHEVs are already sufficient for my needs. The only thing that will make it antiquated before it wore out would be if they started rationing gasoline at the pump.

 

What does "low cost" represent?

 

We just enjoy driving newer vehicles, and I would like to find something with a deeper hatch

 

Different things to different people, right?
I’d like to see something bZ4X sized, around 35k reasonably loaded if it qualifies for federal and state rebates

 

Yeah Toyota wants a little more control over their prismatic cell battery manufacturing. Remember Toyota had a dual path battery R&D? Lithium Ion path was divided into Performance, Popularization, and High Performance while solid state was a separate path. The popularization part reiterated a while back their desire to make bipolar lithium iron phosphate (LFP) like their NiMH bipolar (https://eepower.com/tech-insights/next-gen-ev-batteries-toyota-plans-lithium-ion-improvements/#). All of this also allows Panasonic to further their cylindrical cell manufacturing by partnering with Subaru.
スバルの新型EV、20年代後半に登場、パナソニックの次世代リチウムイオン電池搭載へ | レスポンス（Response.jp）

Partial translation:
"On September 6, Subaru announced that it will receive next-generation cylindrical lithium-ion batteries from Panasonic Energy for use in new EVs scheduled for production from the late 2020s.

The two companies have signed a basic collaboration agreement regarding the supply of automotive cylindrical lithium-ion batteries and have been in discussions about a medium- to long-term partnership.
The two companies have announced plans to supply Panasonic Energy's next-generation cylindrical lithium-ion batteries for battery EVs scheduled for production from the second half of the 2020s. Plans are also underway to build a new lithium-ion battery factory in Oizumi Town, Gunma Prefecture.

The company aims to have 50% of its 1.2 million global sales volume be battery EVs by 2030, and together with Panasonic Energy, it will meet the expanding market demand for battery EVs and automotive batteries.

Under this collaboration, Panasonic Energy will produce lithium-ion batteries at its Suminoe plant in Osaka from fiscal 2027, and at a new plant in Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture from fiscal 2028, to be installed in new EVs. Panasonic Energy plans to have an annual cell production capacity of 20GWh at its two domestic bases by the end of 2030, significantly increasing its domestic production capacity."

Kind of odd since Toyota owns about 16% of Fuji Heavy Industries which is the parent company of Subaru. Maybe they are keeping an eye on other developments, while making their own road.

 

Generally above about $32,000 isn’t low cost and based on average $$$$$ per transaction on new and used vehicles things are moving back to 2019 era amounts, (July 2024) hence the extreme pain Stelantus, Nissan and Ford are experiencing being unable to move significant volumes of their more expensive bread and butter trims.

There is a great deal of unrealized demand for cheap sedans that no longer exist new.

Lots of contortions to explain why there is “no demand “ for certain vehicles ignoring that there is tons of demand but at lower prices that are more in alignment with historical norms