Most of Toyota's Tokyo Olympics fleet will be electrically powered vehicles

Next year both the Olympics and Paralympics are being held in Tokyo. Toyota is the official fleet provider for both events. The company is planning a massive deployment of both battery-electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

A huge array of battery-powered vehicles

Toyota says it will be deploying 3,700 mobility products and/or vehicles for the games with 90 percent of them being electrified. These will consist of battery electric powered vehicles, hydrogen-powered vehicles, or even gas-electric hybrids. The breakdown includes 850 battery-electric vehicles, and 500 fuel-cell electric probably with hydrogen as the fuel.

The vehicles will come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. They will include cars, buses, shuttles, mopeds, and even scooters. Toyota views the Olympics as a great chance to showcase its big lineup of alternative fuel powered and experimental vehicles.

Of the 3,700 products at the Olympics 2,700 will be part of the official fleet that will provide transportation between venues at the games. Beyond the official fleet: "Aside from the official fleet, Toyota will also support Games operations with other vehicles, including the mass-transit Fuel Cell Bus “Sora”, assistive vehicles that help lift passengers into their seats or are equipped with an attached slope to allow passengers with wheelchairs access to enter the vehicle via the back door, and other vehicles such as Fuel Cell Forklifts made and sold by Toyota Industries Corporation."

Pollution will be reduced with predominantly electric vehicles

Preliminary calculations suggest that the CO2 produced by the fleet at Tokyo 2020 will be reduced by approximately half of what would be emitted by a conventional gas and diesel fleet. Toyota aims at having the lowest emissions target level of any official fleet for the 2020 games.

Toyota was a pioneer in alternative fuels

In 1997 Toyota introduced its hybrid Prius using both battery and gasoline power. However, since then the company has fallen behind in the race to produce all-electric premium and mass market vehicles. Tesla, Nissan, GM and several others have overtaken Toyota in the field. However, Toyota claims it will introduce six new EVs beginning in 2020 and through 2025. The Olympics will be a great stage to launch that future lineup.

The e-Palette

The e-Palette has been described as "weird, see through, self-driving boxes roaming through cities delivering people, packages and pizza." They are shown on the appended video.

Toyota sees the e-Palette as carrying out typical mobility services which would include ride-sharing, car-pooling, or even serving as a mobile office, retail space, medical clinics, and more. At the Olympics the e-Palettes will serve transportation needs of staff and athletes. A dozen or more will carry out a continuous loop between the Olympic and Paralympic village. The vehicles are claimed to be level 4 autonomous. They will not require a human driver but will be confined to a specific area.

Formerly published in the Digital Journal

Toyota increases investment in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

Toyota Motor Company is increasing its investment in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCV). It is designing lower-cost, mass-market passenger cars and sport utility vehicles and even pushing the technology into trucks and buses to produce economies of scale.

Toyota wants to make FCV's cheaper

Yoshikazu Tanaka, chief engineer of the Mirai said in an interview with Reuters: "We’re going to shift from limited production to mass production, reduce the amount of expensive materials like platinum used in FCV components, and make the system more compact and powerful.”

Many automakers and industry experts have mostly dismissed plans to expand the production of fuel cell vehicles (FCV) as being commercially unviable but Toyota hopes to prove them wrong. Toyota is busy cranking up improvements for its Miral hydrogen fuel cell vehicle expected to be released in the early 2020s. It has been around for some time as the appended photo shows.

Toyota planning new models of FCVs

The company also plans to introduce other models including SUVs, pick-up trucks, and commercial trucks beginning around 2025, a source with knowledge of the automaker’s plans said. However Toyota would not comment on its specific plans for the future. It has already developed prototypes of small delivery vans, and also large transport trucks.

Ikuo Ota, manager of the new business planning for fuel cell projects at Toyota said: "We are going to use as many parts from existing passenger cars and other models as possible in fuel cell trucks. Otherwise, we won’t see the benefits of mass production.”

Toyota expects improved performance from their FCVs

Toyota hopes to increase the driving range of its next Mirai model to 700-750 kilometers from its present approximately 500 kilometers. By 2025 it hopes to hit 1,000 kilometers far beyond present electric vehicle ranges.

Toyota continues to believe in potential of FCVs

Toyota has a strong belief that within the next 100 years hydrogen will become a key source of clean energy. The company has been busy developing FCVs since early in the 1990's. Hydrogen is the most abundant element and it also has the advantage of storing more energy than a battery of equivalent weight.

Production of Mirai has been quite limited

Mirai was world's first production FCV launched way back in 2014. However, it costs around $60,000 prior to any government incentives. There is an acute lack of refueling infrastructure. Less than six thousand have been sold around the world.

Forecasts see sale of FCV's to make up only 0.2 percent of world passenger car sales by 2027 whereas battery EVs are expected to be 11.7 percent. However Toyota is reported to think that the demand for the vehicles will strengthen as countries strongly committed to EV's such as China warm to the advantages of the technology. The company also sees the development of FCVs as a hedge against the possible scarcity of key EV battery materials such as cobalt.

For now the Mirai is hand-built in Toyota city producing only a few models a day. However, the company expects sales to rise to about 30,000 units annually after 2020 from about 3,000 now. To lower production costs the company will need to produce other models.

The company is also reducing other costs. Eri Ichikawa a fuel cell engineer said: "We’ve been able to decrease the platinum loading by 10 percent to 20 percent and deliver the same performance."

Fuel Cell Vehicles

Wikipedia describes an FCV as follows: "A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is a type of electric vehicle which uses a fuel cell, instead of a batt ery, or in combination with a battery or supercapacitor, to power its on-board electric motor. Fuel cells in vehicles generate electricity to power the motor, generally using oxygen from the air and compressed hydrogen. Most fuel cell vehicles are classified as zero-emissions vehicles that emit only water and heat. "

Fuel cells are being developed and tested in trucks, buses, boats, motorcycles and bicycles, as well as other kinds of vehicles.

As of 2017 there is only limited infrastructure support for FCVs with only 36 hydrogen fueling stations available in the US. However, more are planned particularly in California. However there are stations in Japan, Europe and elsewhere with more being planned. However, some critics question whether the technology will ever be able to compete with other zero emission technologies.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Tesla and Toyota plus others battle it out for best battery technology

oyota is reported to be working on an electric car that will be powered by a solid state battery. It hopes to begin sales of the new vehicle in 2022. The car is said to be based on an all-new platform and will be able to recharge in just a few minutes.

While there are many new types of batteries being researched Toyota believes that solid-state batteries are the closest to practical application for commercial purposes. The batteries are expected to be compact enough to be placed under the seats and the interior of the new cars should be roomy and comfortable.

A key difference between solid-state batteries and the commonly used lithium-ion battery is that the latter uses a liquid chemical electrolytic solution to regulate the flow of current between the anode and cathode of the battery but the former does not.

Solid state batteries can be up to six times faster charging than regular lithium-ion batteries. The battery can hold up to twice the energy density as well. The batteries can last up to ten years as compared to an expected two years for regular lithium-ion batteries. There are no flammable components and thus no batteries catching fire. There is also the possibility of using other chemicals to replace lithium which is scarce and will no doubt become more expensive as demand increases. An article by Android Authority states there are eight different major categories of solid state batteries with each one using different materials to form the electrolyte: Li-Halide, Perovskite, Li-Hydride, NASICON-like, Garnet, Argyrodite, LiPON, and LISICON-like.

Battery researcher Shinji Nakanishi talked of transitioning from the present Li-ion batteries to solid state batteries and then Li-air batteries. “We want our electric cars to go 500 km. And for this, we want rechargeable batteries that can generate 800 to 1,000 watt-hours per liter.” This would be two or even three times the energy density of the best present day Li-ion batteries. Toyota is also working on increasing the efficiency of its hybrid vehicles by 10 percent. Toyota is hoping to mass produce electric vehicles in China as early as 2019. China is now the world's largest car market. However, for now the Chinese plants plan to use lithium-ion batteries.

Presidentt Kazuhiro Tsuga of Panasonic said: “We think the existing technology can still extend the energy density of Li-ion batteries by 20 percent to 30 percent. But there is a trade-off between energy density and safety. So if you look for even more density, you have to think about additional safety technology as well. Solid-state batteries are one answer.” Panasonic provides batteries for Tesla the electric vehicle manufacturer. Battery expert Nagaki Yabuchi of Tokyo Denki University said that the density of Li-ion batteries can be increased by using a nickel-based material for cathodes but he expected the limits of lithium-ion technology would be reached by around 2020. While Tesla has a huge laboratory for evaluating new battery technologies so far the company has said it sees no viable replacement for lithium-ion batteries at present. It may be some time before new battery technology is developed sufficiently to be commercially viable. However, research is going ahead full steam.

The co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery along with a team of engineers at the University of Texas, Cockrell School of Engineering, in Austin, has now developed all-solid-state battery cells that would be safer, faster charging, rechargeable batteries for handheld mobile devices, electric cars, and storage. The batteries would last longer than lithium ion batteries as well. Goodenough, who is still working at the ripe old age of 94 said: “Cost, safety, energy density, rates of charge and discharge and cycle life are critical for battery-driven cars to be more widely adopted. We believe our discovery solves many of the problems that are inherent in today’s batteries.”

September auto sales in U.S. surge

In the U.S., auto sales were higher than they have been in four and a half years. Sales were calculated at 14.94 million vehicles on an annualized basis. Analysts had estimated the rate at 14.5 million. This is the highest rate since March 2008

Analysts expected a rise of less than 9% in U.S. sales but the actual increase was 13%. Cheap financing helped fuel the increase in sales. Almost a third of Toyota purchasers took advantage of no interest loans to finance their purchases.

Analyst Jesse Toprak said:

"The money is so cheap now... Higher resale values and cheap money has been enabling automakers to offer some of the most attractive leasing programs we've seen in years."

Interest rates on a 4 year new car loan were around 3.19% in September 2012 compared to 4.29% in September 2012 according to Bankrate.com.

Consumers delayed purchasing big ticket items during the recession. Average age of vehicles being driven rose to record highs. Now, as consumers need to replace their old vehicles and the economy begins to recover, auto sales are improving.

As fuel prices rise and consumers are less affluent, sales of smaller cars have surged. GM claimed that sales of its small and compact cars almost doubled in September. While Ford saw its sales virtually flat, its small car sales rose about 73%. Don Johnson, the Chevrolet sales chief, says that there is a definite trend toward purchasing cars over trucks.

Toyota had the largest increase in sales in September up a whopping 41.5%. from last September. Honda also saw a big rise of 31%. Of the U.S. big three, Chrysler did the best with a 12% increase. Chrysler, is now a subsidiary of the Italian car maker Fiat. Sales of the Fiat brand jumped 50% in September. The small efficient cars may be gaining a U.S. customer base. GM followed with a 1.5% gain but Ford sales were almost flat over a year earlier. Volkswagen also did well with a 34.4% increase. Nissan suffered a slight decline in sales.

No doubt, as fuel prices remain high, sales of small and more fuel efficient vehicles will increase as cash-strapped consumers are forced to replace their aging vehicles.

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