Toyota plans to cut the cost of EV batteries by half, how will this be achieved?

　　Earlier, at Toyota's battery business online briefing, Toyota's chief technology officer Maeda Masahiko put forward an ambitious goal: strive to reduce the cost of each electric vehicle battery to half.

　　Toyota is scheduled to launch a pure electric vehicle "TOYOTA bZ4X" in 2022. The battery used strives to reach the world's top level of life, and the goal is to maintain 90% of the battery capacity after 10 years of use. Through the research and development of the integration of vehicles and batteries, Toyota hopes to achieve the goal of further reducing the cost of each vehicle by 50% compared with the "TOYOTA bZ4X" by 2030.

　　Toyota said, “In order to promote the popularization of pure electric vehicles, we hope to control costs and provide them to consumers at a more favorable price. For batteries, we hope to achieve a cost reduction of more than 30% through research and development of materials and structures. For complete vehicles in terms of TOYOTA bZ4X until 2030, gradually reduce the power consumption per kilometer, and also strive to achieve the goal of reducing 30%."

　　In terms of battery research and development, Toyota will try to develop cheap raw materials that do not use rare metals cobalt and nickel, and at the same time develop new battery manufacturing processes and battery material processes. Toyota will also adopt an integrated battery structure that matches the vehicle's exterior to reduce costs and evolve the battery control model.

　　Toyota’s battery investment in fiscal year 2020 (until March 2021) is 80 billion yen. Looking forward to the next ten years, it plans to maintain an annual battery investment level of more than 100 billion yen by 2030, and to provide on-board vehicles by 2030. The battery investment is 1.5 trillion yen, and 1 trillion yen of which is used to increase the battery production capacity to 200 million kilowatt-hours (equivalent to 33 times the current amount), an increase of more than 10% over the previous target.

　　Toyota's chief manufacturing officer (CPO) Masaichi Okada said, "This will be a large-scale investment, and Toyota will also actively invest in electrification." Toyota's goal is to sell 8 million electric vehicles, including hybrid vehicles (HV), by 2030.

　　Among them, the total number of pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles (FCV) is 2 million. In the field of pure electric vehicles, Toyota plans to build 10 new production lines by 2025, and will continue to build more than 10 production lines per year in the next five years.

　　At present, Toyota has not disclosed the base to increase production capacity, but it is envisaged to invest in places such as China and the United States. Toyota's existing major battery suppliers include: CATL, BYD, Panasonic, Toshiba, GS Yuasa, etc.

　　Lithium-ion battery (LIB) has become the main energy storage solution in modern social life. Among them, lithium iron phosphate batteries are a perfect substitute for lead-acid batteries, and are the first choice for grid-connected peak shaving, off-grid energy storage, PV energy storage, UPS, data center and other industries.