Rocket-inspired Toyota plans to get you more than 900 miles on a single charge

Toyota has unveiled plans to create a solid-state battery capable of 1,500km (932 miles) on one charge. Speaking at its annual technical conference, where engineers described being inspired by hypersonic aerodynamics, Toyota has revisited the next-gen battery chat.

The car maker reckons it’s made a technological breakthrough in durability, catalysing some new ambitions.

Initially targeting 1000km (621 miles) by 2026, Toyota eventually wants to get cars past that 900-mile point. Not only that, it wants to do it with a fast-charge time of around 20 minutes by 2028. All sounds pretty good... and very grand – the fact ‘challenge to launch' is scribbled all over the data tables is another story.

This isn’t actually the first time Toyota has mentioned such technology - keen-eyed consumers will remember the time it said it’d be launching a solid-state battery by 2021 - and for good reason.

Solid-state batteries use a gel-like electrolyte, instead of a liquid one. They’re more lightweight and more energy dense than the current lithium-ion batteries. What’s more they’re safer and they don’t need to be liquid-cooled. All the right things for automotive use, hence why BMW, Fisker, Nissan and any other electric car maker with a shred of ambition is throwing research dosh in their direction.

Right now, however, solid-state batteries are not cheap and clearly, they’ve been too easy to thrash the life out of in charge and discharge cycles.

Back in 2021, the Prius pioneer presented a ‘future Toyota/Lexus showroom’, with ambitions to have 30 new all-electric models by 2030. But in April 2023, the brand reaffirmed its commitment to plug-in hybrids, so it looks like ALL the cars (sic) are still on the table – at least for the time being.