Toyota's chief technology officer, said at the Japan Mobile Show that Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, had failed and would focus on hydrogen commercial vehicles in the future. Hydrogen stations have limited Mirai's sales. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are only 57 hydrogen stations in the United States, all in California. The route of
commercial vehicles is relatively fixed, and it is easier to establish a hydrogenation network in the construction of infrastructure. But at the same time, Nakajima also said that he would not abandon hydrogen passenger cars, and would look for ways to reduce the size of components such as fuel cell stacks and storage tanks in order to make them suitable for different types of vehicles and expand their application scope. Nakajima believes that pickup trucks are also potential applications of hydrogen energy. At the same time, Toyota also released its 50 kW modular fuel cell, which is used in forklifts, agricultural machinery, construction equipment and other equipment.
Toyota's inner vacillation
follows an industry summit in which Toyota attacked global automakers for embracing electrification as a "silent majority without a mind of their own", and a recently released technical briefing shows the company's internal differences on electric vehicles.
Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda is known in the industry for his resistance to the all-in electric route, and he has been emphasizing the need to develop diversified electric technologies. However, the global automotive industry is almost directly moving towards the pure electric vision.
Toyota's technical briefing released the day before the 2023 annual shareholders'meeting shows that it seems to have made a breakthrough in the new solid-state battery technology. The briefing covers battery technology, manufacturing technology, aerodynamics and other aspects, aiming to improve the endurance and performance of electric vehicle, while reducing costs. According to the briefing, these technologies will be implemented between 2026 and 2030.
In May this year, Toyota set up BEV Factory, an organization specializing in pure electric (BEV) technology. At the technical briefing, BEV Factory President Kato Takeo elaborated on Toyota's existing and developing electric vehicle technology. In terms of
battery technology, he mentioned that Toyota has many measures to improve battery performance and reduce costs, and he also said that solid-state batteries have matured. A recent "technological breakthrough" has overcome the previous problem of poor durability of solid-state batteries and is ready to transform this technology from the laboratory stage to the mass production stage.
Toyota also said in a technical briefing that it is working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' rocket designers to improve the aerodynamics of the electric vehicle. At present, the drag coefficient of Tesla's best-selling Model Y is about 0.23 Cd; the drag coefficient of Lucid Air, a new force in American automobile manufacturing, is 0.197 Cd.
In addition to product technology itself, Toyota also plans to improve production technology. For example, it has previously disassembled Tesla Model Y to analyze its integrated casting technology, which will be used in Toyota's next generation of electric vehicles. Reduce equipment and labor costs by reducing the proportion of complex weldments in production through a large aluminum die casting machine.
In addition, through the highly intelligent vehicle automation mobile production line technology, the production process and factory investment are reduced by half respectively.
Through a series of measures mentioned above, Toyota plans to launch the next generation of pure electric products to the market in 2026. In 2030, the global sales of pure electric products are expected to reach 3.5 million units, of which 1.7 million new products will be developed by BEV Factory.
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