https://www.autonews.com/automakers-suppliers/toyota-buys-out-panasonic-key-battery-maker-push-evs "First U.S. battery plant
Toyota is already building its
first U.S. battery plant in North Carolina to supply BEVs that will eventually be built in North America, at sites including its mammoth Georgetown, Ky., plant. In October, Toyota more than doubled its investment in the North Carolina battery plant with $8 billion to increase the number of battery production lines to 10 from two.
Those lines will be dedicated to electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, vastly expanding planned production capacity to more than 30 gigawatt-hours annually. Another four lines are under construction to feed hybrid vehicles, for a facilitywide total of 14 battery assembly lines.
To power the wave of new EVs, Toyota has outlined five new batteries that will debut by the end of the decade. They kick off with a next-generation lithium ion power pack that will double the range the current power pack used in today's Toyota bZ4X electric crossover.
The new battery will deliver driving ranges of 621 miles and cost 20 percent less than Toyota's current EV batteries. This first next-generation lithium ion battery will debut in 2026.
Next up is a bipolar lithium iron phosphate battery that arrives around 2026 or 2027. Bipolar batteries boost power density by combining anode and cathode terminals into the same current collector. Anodes and cathodes normally have their own collectors.
This battery will boost range by 20 percent over today's bZ4X battery while reducing its cost by 40 percent, thanks to the use of the less expensive iron phosphate chemistry.
After that, Toyota plans a nickel-based bipolar lithium ion battery that will come to market around 2027 to 2028. That battery will improve range by 10 percent over the 621-mile range planned for the next-generation lithium ion battery that arrives in 2026 and will cost 10 percent less."