Toyota to spend almost £10bn on EV battery tech and supply by 2030

Toyota is preparing to spend almost £10 billion on battery technology by 2030 as the manufacturer looks to become a leader in the EV space.

Speaking at an investors briefing on Tuesday 7th September, Toyota Motor Corporation’s chief technology officer, Masahiko Maeda, outlined the company’s plans to develop its battery technology and battery supply system before the end of the decade.

Maeda cited the growth of the electric vehicle market for the manufacturers decision to accelerate the rollout of its lineup of battery-electric vehicles, as well as developing and manufacturing a full lineup of batteries. This includes “a new type of lithium-ion battery” that will be introduced in the second half of the decade.

The new batteries will aim to provide a longer service life, as well as improving charging time for electric vehicles.

In the presentation, Maeda also confirmed that the manufacturing is aiming to “popularise” battery-electric vehicles by reducing costs and making them available at a reasonable price.

“To start with, we aim to reduce the costs of batteries themselves by 30 percent or more by developing materials and structures,” he said. “Then, for the vehicle, we aim to improve power consumption, which is an indicator of the amount of electricity used per kilometer, by 30 percent, starting with the Toyota bZ4X.”

Earlier this year, Toyota revealed its ‘Beyond Zero’ strategy, which consists of producing 15 battery electric vehicles, including seven Toyota bZ models.

Maeda continued: “With the rapid expansion of electrified vehicles, we are working to build a flexible system that can stably supply the required volume of batteries at the required timing while meeting the needs of various customers in each region around the world.

“In pursuit of our battery development concept of achieving batteries that can be used with peace of mind, we will establish the needed technologies by conducting a certain amount of in-house production, and we will cooperate and collaborate with partners who understand and will put into practice our concept. We will also proceed with discussions with new partners in some regions.

“We are building a system with our partners that will allow us to incorporate into discussed plans the volume of batteries that we will need in about three years.”

The amount of investment in the development of a battery supply system and research and development is expected to be approximately 1.5 trillion yen (c.£9.7bn) by 2030, according to Toyota