Toyota Expects To Spend $13.5 Billion By 2030 On Battery Production

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, plans to spend more than $13.5 billion by 2030 to develop batteries and the underlying supply chain to catch competitors in the growing market for electric cars and trucks.

While the Japanese automaker led the industry in the technology of hybrid gasoline-electric hybrids, it is working hard to bring its first all-electric vehicle lineup to market next year.

The company said it wants to slash the cost of its batteries by at least 30%, primarily by looking for lower cost materials and a more efficient way to structure its battery cells.

“For the vehicle, we aim to improve power consumption, which is an indicator of the amount of electricity used per kilometer by 30%, starting with the Toyota bZ4X,” said Chief Technology Officer Masahiko Maeda, citing a new compact SUV expected to be launched soon.

Another goal is to set up 70 electric vehicle battery lines by 2030 capable of producing 200 gigawatt hours of battery power. A gigawatt hour is equivalent to one million kilowatt hours.

According to Reuters, Toyota is specifically focused on producing solid-state batteries, which are more energy dense than the liquid lithium-ion batteries used in many EVs currently available. Solid state batteries are less susceptible to catching fire.

The company also plans to use solid-state batteries in its future gasoling-electric hybrids, including the Prius.

Toyota wants to sell 8 million partially or fully electrified vehicles by 2030, of which about 2 million will by powered entirely by batteries or fuel cells. The other 6 million will be gasoline-electric hybrids or plug-in hybrids.

Volkswagen said Tuesday it may have to spend more than previously announced to achieve its goals in the areas of autonomous driving and electric vehicles. The German automaker has already said it plans to spend 150 billion euros ($178 billion) by 2025 on the transformation to electric propulsion.

VW plans to produce batteries at six new plants by 2030 with a capacity of 240 gigawatt hours.

General Motors

GM
announced in June that it will spend $8 billion on two new battery plants, with some of that production will go to Honda Motor Co.

Ford has a battery joint venture with SK Innovation. In May, Ford said it will spend about $30 billion on electric vehicles between now and 2025.

But the current EV sales leader remains Tesla

TSLA
, which delivered about 500,000 electric vehicles in 2020, has said it is on pace to sell more than 800,000 in 2021.