In recent years, electric vehicles have developed rapidly around the world, but in the Chinese market, Toyota's battery cars have been facing an embarrassing situation.
While Toyota has significant strengths in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), it has not performed well in the battery electric vehicles (EV) segments.
In particular, the sales of Toyota's BZ series models, such as the BZ3 and BZ4X, are far from meeting expectations, with the cumulative sales of the BZ3 from January to May 2024 being 14,065 units, while the BZ4X has only sold 7,167 units in the whole of 2023. The reason for this is that Toyota has not shown the strength to match the "Toyota brand" in terms of battery cars.
In order to reverse this situation, Toyota announced a series of advances in next-generation electrification technologies at GAC Toyota's first Technology Open Day, especially the development of all-solid-state batteries, which marks an important step forward for Toyota in the field of electric vehicles.
Timeline of Toyota's next-generation battery technology
Toyota has unveiled four categories of next-generation battery technologies, which will be introduced to the market sequentially from 2026 onwards:
- Performance lithium-ion battery: Expected to be launched in 2026, it will have a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and a fast charge from 10% to 80% in just 20 minutes.
- Popular lithium iron phosphate battery: Expected to be launched in 2026-2027, it combines the bipolar technology of Toyota's first HEV model nickel-metal hydride battery, with a range of up to 600 kilometers and a fast charging time of less than 30 minutes from 10% to 80%.
- High-performance lithium-ion battery: Expected to be launched in 2027-2028, it combines a bipolar structure with a high-nickel cathode to improve performance, with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and a fast charging time of less than 20 minutes.
- All-solid-state battery: Expected to be launched in 2027-2028, it uses a solid-state electrolyte, which makes ions move faster, has the characteristics of high voltage resistance and low temperature influence, and will have a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and only 10 minutes to achieve fast charging.
The embarrassing situation of Toyota's battery cars
In the Chinese market, the performance of Toyota's BZ series battery cars is worrying. Sales of the BZ3 and BZ4 fell far short of expectations. In particular, after the BZ4X was launched, it was constantly negative, and it had to be renamed as Bozhi 4X and re-listed. But the market feedback is still not as good as that of competitors.
This is mainly due to Toyota's lack of competitiveness in the pure electric vehicle market, where the range and charging speed have not met the needs of consumers, putting Toyota at a disadvantage in this segment.
Breakthroughs and future prospects for all-solid-state batteries
Toyota's development of all-solid-state batteries is undoubtedly a major breakthrough in the field of electric vehicles. The use of solid-state electrolytes not only improves the energy density and safety of the battery, but also significantly shortens the charging time. This means that Toyota's electric vehicles equipped with all-solid-state batteries will be able to better meet the market's demand for long range and fast charging, thus gaining an advantage in the fierce market competition.
Toyota's electrification strategy
Toyota plans to launch 10 new electrified models by 2026 and has set a target of 1.5 million electric vehicles per year by 2026. The company aims to sell 3.5 million electrified vehicles by 2030, of which 1.7 million will be next-generation electric vehicles.
In addition, Toyota will continue to promote its all-round electrification strategy, including the multi-path development of HEV, PHEV, EV, and FCEV. In October this year, a plug-in hybrid model that supports fast charging will be launched in China, further enhancing Toyota's competitiveness in the Chinese market for new energy vehicles.