Research and development have never turned a profit. As a result, R&D is often one of the first things to get axed when bean counters make budget cuts. However, Toyota has always been more invested in long-term planning than in frantically racing from quarter to quarter. This is why its cars are some of the most reliable in existence.
This long-term-based approach to business is why Toyota is one of the biggest car companies in the world. Indeed, Toyota has positioned itself in a truly fortunate place. The Japanese automaker has such high profits that it can spend billions of dollars on projects that may not break even for several years, like hydrogen and solid-state batteries
Toyota Remains Committed To Hydrogen
- Although some people expected Toyota’s new president and CEO to end its hydrogen program, the company remains as committed as ever.
- Toyota has designed hydrogen cartridges to make refueling easier.
- Toyota has renamed its California research and development facility to North American Hydrogen Headquarters.
When Koji Sato succeeded Akio Toyoda as president and CEO, many people expected him to end Toyota’s long-running hydrogen initiative. The popular story was that hydrogen had been outgoing president Toyoda’s passion project. Toyoda allegedly quashed any BEV initiatives during his entire tenure, instead pouring countless millions of dollars into his beloved hydrogen cars. And indeed, Toyota released its first EV (the bZ4X) right after Toyoda’s exit.
Of course, it’s folly to believe that Toyota would have slapped together an EV design in just a few months and then and then rushed it to production. Other companies have been known to use their customers as unwitting beta testers for their hasty new designs. (This often leads to bankruptcy and the occasional bailout.) Of course, Toyota has never done that. But for those who wanted to believe the simple, digestible story that Toyoda personally hated EVs and Sato would finally end this hydrogen nonsense, the bZ4X was the proof they needed. However, Sato has affirmed that Toyota will still pursue hydrogen fuel cells. The company’s subsequent actions confirm that.
Toyota May Produce Hydrogen Cartridges To Make Refueling Easier
One of hydrogen’s biggest advantages over EVs is that one can refuel the car about as quickly as filling a tank of gasoline. However, Toyota is striving to make this even easier. Instead of going to a hydrogen station to pump fuel into the car, Toyota has proposed making small cartridges that one simply plugs into the vehicle’s fuel inlet. They operate similarly to those finger-sized compressed air cartridges that some cyclists use to refill their tires on the road.
North American Hydrogen Headquarters: Toyota’s New Hydrogen Facility
If anyone doubted Toyota’s continued commitment to hydrogen after Sato took the reins, the company is renaming its California facility from “Toyota Motors of North America Research and Development” to “North American Hydrogen Headquarters” (H2HQ for short). This rebranding comes with the usual round of expansions and renovations. Most notably, Toyota is making the suburban Los Angeles complex independent of the power grid. To this end, Toyota is building a micro-grid powered by solar, battery storage, and (of course) hydrogen fuel cells.
Toyota’s Partnership With BMW
Toyota has entered into an unlikely partnership with BMW to further the hydrogen cause. Of course, the two companies had already collaborated on the resurrected Supra. But this alliance goes a lot deeper than a coupe. Toyota and BMW have announced grand plans to make the world a better place for hydrogen. They aren’t merely building fuel cells, but pushing for a worldwide hydrogen infrastructure to support them. Of course, they haven’t given any specifics about how they would create a worldwide hydrogen network out of nearly nothing. Nevertheless, the intentions and the money are there.
Toyota’s Plans With Solid-State Batteries
- Toyota has been researching SSBs for over a decade.
- A North American solid-state battery factory is under construction in North Carolina.
Toyota’s EV trajectory has sometimes confounded onlookers. The company briefly flirted with all-electric vehicles with a battery-powered variant of the Rav4, which it sold for a few years at the turn of the millennium and again from 2012 to 2014. Instead, Toyota decided that lithium-ion batteries were not good enough. It has instead been researching solid-state batteries, which theoretically would make the current generation of lithium-ion EV batteries look as outdated as the lead-acid batteries that powered General Motors’ EV1. Toyota has apparently chosen to skip competing with the current generation of EVs and instead preemptively outdo the next.
Toyota Has More Than A Decade Of Solid-State Battery Experience
Toyota made its first inroads into solid-state batteries in 2012. At the time, the driving public was barely warming up to the notion of EVs in general. (The first Tesla Roadster had been released only four years earlier.) The concept of solid-state EV batteries seemed as wacky in 2012 as hybrid cars did before the Prius. But in recent years, the rest of the automotive industry has started taking an interest in SSBs. However, Toyota still has over a decade of research and development that no other automaker has.
Toyota Is Building An SSB Factory In North Carolina
Of course, Toyota has been relatively quiet about any solid-state developments. It’s tempting to speculate that the company has nothing to show after all these years. However, Toyota has already spent literal billions of dollars on an SSB factory in North Carolina. It looks like Toyota’s SSB partnerships with companies like Panasonic and Idemitsu (a Japanese petroleum producer) will finally come to fruition. Toyota has been promising to have SSBs ready for the public by “2027 or 2028.” The construction of a factory strongly suggests that SSBs will not be postponed.
The Future Of Hydrogen And Solid-State Batteries
- Hydrogen passenger cars may always be a small market niche, but hydrogen has many other uses.
- Solid-state batteries would eliminate EV “range anxiety” and long charging times. This may finally cause EVs to supersede internal combustion.
With both solid-state batteries and hydrogen, Toyota is essentially ignoring the present and betting on the future. With solid-state batteries, the technology to make them successfully power cars does not exist yet— or at least, such magical “wonder batteries” can only be lovingly crafted one at a time in a laboratory. In the case of hydrogen, the required technology already works, but the world isn’t ready. One can get gasoline in every town, but not hydrogen.
But, aside from those who live in the few cities that have hydrogen fueling stations, most people can’t purchase hydrogen unless they order it from a scientific supplier. However, Toyota is currently one of the biggest car sellers on earth. It can afford to prepare for the future.
Hydrogen May Not Replace BEVs, But Its Time Is Coming
Of course, many people think hydrogen cars will never take off. However, hydrogen may prove a natural fit for the trucking industry. For one thing, hydrogen fuel cells are more naturally suited for steady-speed cruising than for fast acceleration. They aren’t very good at providing sudden surges of power when the driver floors the accelerator. (FCEVs have a battery to make up for this.) It should be obvious why this makes them better suited for trucking than for daily commutes.
Hydrogen fuel cell systems may also become a common choice for mobile power sources. Like Honda and General Motors, Toyota is pushing fuel cells as a replacement for portable engines for things like generators. It is true that hydrogen may never be practical as a car fuel, but fuel cells do show a lot of promise for other, non-automotive uses.
SSBs Could Make EVs Supersede Internal Combustion
It’s easy to see why Toyota (and, more recently, everyone else in the auto industry) is pursuing solid-state batteries. If one believes the hype, solid-state batteries will finally put EVs on par with internal combustion engines. They can (allegedly) be fast-charged in minutes without wearing them out faster. They can hold twice the charge in half the size. Severe heat and cold don’t threaten them. (Lithium-ion batteries don’t like being frozen or sun-roasted.) Our own readers have told us that long charging times and short ranges are the biggest reason they haven’t switched to EVs, and solid-state batteries will (theoretically) make those problems go away.
Toyota Is Putting Its Profits Into Its Future
Toyota has the money to prepare for the future, and is doing exactly that. Its current lineup of ICE cars, hybrids, and the hydrogen-powered Mirai are keeping it on top of the automotive world. The company is using this success to essentially buy time. Toyota can afford to wait for the world to catch up to it. Other companies couldn’t achieve this feat without a bailout.
Toyota Launched The SSB Revolution (And, It Took Years For Anyone Else To Compete)
Toyota single-handedly created the market for hybrid cars when it launched the Prius in 1997. Of course, hybrid cars are much older than that. However, no other company had ever managed to sell them. Now, Toyota is poised to do the same with solid-state batteries. Only in the last few years have other car companies gotten into the solid-state business. This means they’re frantically trying to catch up to where Toyota already is. The rest of the automotive world is desperately flinging money bags and partnership contracts at any battery startup that can slap together a prospectus, but Toyota is already prepared.
Toyota Can Afford To Take Big Risks
Of course, it is true that both hydrogen fuel cells and solid-state batteries may prove to be technological failures. The history of cars is full of projects that went on for decades and were ultimately scrapped when success looked certain. The Chrysler Turbine went through twenty years of development, including a small fleet of fully functional concept cars, but was canceled anyway.
However, even if hydrogen and SSBs both go into the footnotes of automotive history, Toyota will not suffer too much. As one of the biggest car companies in the world (if not the biggest), Toyota has plenty of revenue to make up for the loss.
