Toyota taps BYD for new battery tech

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Toyota is planning to launch a small electric sedan in China, and has turned to BYD for help with the batteries.

According to Automotive News, which cites four people “with knowledge of the matter”, the car will be an “electric holy grail for Toyota,” after years of going without a small EV that is competitive on costs in China without compromising on comfort.

Tapping BYD for the batteries is apparently to gain access to its in-house ‘Blade’ battery, which is a lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) design that is less bulky than Toyota’s batteries.

BYD's Han is a Tesla Model 3 competitor that can hit 100kmh in 3.9 seconds.

The report says that Toyota briefly explored a battery venture with BYD back in 2018, with Toyota’s engineers calling the Blade battery a “game-changer “as it was cheaper and freed up interior space. Apparently, a Blade pack is between five and ten centimetres thinner than other lithium-ion packs.

**READ MORE:

BYD’s battery is cheaper, thinner, less prone to overheating and has a longer shelf-life than Toyotas current batteries.

* Why an electric car battery is so expensive, for now

* Toyota has working solid-state batteries on the road

BYD’s flexible development style means its vehicles can launch with more up-to-date tech and at a lower price point than Toyota.

* Rivian files for IPO, seeking about US$80 billion valuation

* Is Nissan building a small all-electric ute?

China is also getting the Mitsubishi Airtrek, a fully electric crossover.

'It's a 'scales fell from my eyes' kind of technology we initially dismissed because its design is so radically simple,' one of the four sources said.

LFP batteries have a lower energy density than most other lithium-ion cells but are cheaper, have a longer shelf-life, are less prone to overheating and don't use cobalt or nickel. Tesla already uses LFP batteries in its Model 3 and Model Y in China.

BYD also brings a different approach to building cars, one that allows more flexibility in the design and quality assurance process. Some at Toyota see this as cutting corners but, while there are still question marks over BYD’s long-term quality, Automotive News’ sources said there was maturity in BYD’s cars, despite being much cheaper than comparable Toyota models.

Combined with a shorter prototyping stage and allowing changes to be made as late as two years into the development process (usually around three or four years), BYD models typically come with more up-to-date technology than Toyota vehicles, often at a cheaper price point.

AN’s four sources all believe that further advances in virtual engineering, as well as the fact that BYD produces a wide array of its own components, have helped it close potential gaps in quality and reliability that could stem from such last-minute design changes.

'Our challenge at Toyota is whether we dismiss BYD's way of engineering as being loosey-goosey and too risky, or whether we can learn from it,' one of the sources said.

Whether Toyota’s Chinese EV is released to other markets is yet to be confirmed. Also TBC is whether Toyota will use BYD’s Blade battery in other electric models.

Other not-for-us EVs releasing soon in China include the Mitsubishi Airtrek, due in 2022, which is a name that used to adorn the first-generation Outlander in the Japanese market. It returns as an electric crossover developed under the GAC-Mitsubishi Motors joint venture.

The new Airtrek is unrelated to the latest Outlander, instead being a lightly restyled and rebadged GAC Aion V, an electric crossover revealed in 2020 that packs a 70kWh battery with 520km of range and around 135kW from a single electric motor.

While it may seem simple to conclude that if its being made in China it could come here, it pays to remember that most of the joint-developments between the major carmakers and their Chinese partners are strictly for the local market and never leave Chinese shores.