Under the radar, a large R&D group at Toyota is pursuing solid-state batteries for future electric vehicles

March 28, 2018 | Case Study

Toyota, as well as others in the automotive industry, are at a crossroads for the future of vehicle drivetrains to replace the traditional internal combustion engine: While much of Toyota's R&D efforts have focused on fuel cells and a hydrogen ecosystem, a smaller effort within the giant automotive company has been pursuing a dramatically different technology: Solid-state batteries. The size of the effort is larger than nearly all competing solid-state battery start-ups, and Toyota now has more than 1,000 patent publications to its name around this next-generation energy storage technology.