Road users are constantly looking for ways to save money, fuel and contribute their own share to help save the environment. Thus, they look for options to get electric or hybrid cars. EVs, instead of using diesel or petrol, uses batteries to move. However, current technology only allows EVs a travel distance of only 100 to 150 miles on average in a single full charge.
Short Ranged Batteries Versus Practicality
New and upcoming autonomous cars can only drive to a maximum of 200 miles on a single charge. That distance can also be achieved when the car is set to its most economical setting or traveling with a very light touch on the gas pedal. Although economical, that may not be so practical as common electric vehicle owners use their cars as their daily. Although 200 miles is far enough for some, using the car as your daily driver may make them anxious that they will run out of power before arriving at their destination or when going back to their homes without having the ability to charge. Typical fast charging times for the cars are about four to five hours, and road users may not have the luxury of time to wait for their cars to move in order to get to their desired destination.
Toyota Is Developing New Technology To Solve The Issue
According to AutoNews, Toyota, world leader in car manufacturing, is looking at ways to mass-produce long range car batteries. The company is targeting to hit the market by 2020 and will be setting up a team of developers and engineers by early 2017 to start the research. The goal is to create a battery that can travel more than 186 miles on a single charge.
Reports from Nikkei newspaper mentioned that the cars most likely to be used would come from existing platforms like the Corolla or the Prius. Historically, Toyota was only in favor of hybrid cars, or cars that run on both petrol and battery. The company only wanted the battery to be used for short distances and to save fuel. However, as the world's largest car maker, analysts mentions that Toyota cannot allow themselves to be left behind by other electric car manufacturers such as Tesla, Chevrolet, and Nissan.
Toyota's Mission
Although the EV competition is obvious, Toyota claims they are not doing the move just because it is the trend in the market, but because their intention from the beginning is to come up with technology the market is ready for. Jana Hartline, Toyota's environmental communication manager, stated that their "outlook has never been to be the first, but to be the best".
Satoshi Ogioso, a former product planner for Toyota, gave the statement "For the next 10 or 20 years, our estimation is that more than 50 to 50 percent of cars should be hybrid or fuel cell". The statement confirms that Toyota has long been waiting for the right time, and is now ready to be a major player in the electric vehicle production.
Toyota will also be launching a new version of their famous hybrid, the Prius, in the coming months. It is highly possible that the car may have an all-new longer lasting battery that could pave the way for better EV range for the rest of the world.
