Has Toyota solved the electric car battery problem?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Toyota has unveiled a revolutionary electric car battery, able to travel 1,200 kilometres in one go and can be charged in just ten minutes.
Toyota’s CEO Koji Sato said that “commercialisation of solid state batteries is a thing of the future... now within reach, changing the future of cars". The company also claims to be on the brink of being able to manufacture them.
So is this, as some are claiming, a ‘watershed moment’ in car making? Can these new batteries now be produced at scale? What impact will this have on the popularity of electric cars and their uptake?
Has Toyota solved the electric car battery problem?
Contributors:
Paul Shearing, chair in sustainable energy engineering and director of the Zero Institute at the University of Oxford. Shirley Meng, Professor of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. Jeff Liker, Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Michigan for 35 years. Dr Evi Petavratzi, a mineral commodity specialist from the British Geological Survey. Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Bob Howard Editor: Tara McDermott Sound Designer: Gareth Jones Production Coordinator: Jordan King
Image: Olga Rolenko via Getty Images - 1403000871
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Unmissible stories from around the globe from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:05.0 | My happy place, this is who I am. |
| 0:08.0 | Search for the documentary, lives less ordinary, and amazing sports stories stories wherever you get your BBC |
| 0:15.0 | podcasts. |
| 0:17.8 | Welcome to the inquiry with me Tanya Beckett, one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:28.0 | In October, the largest car company in the world made an announcement that sent shock waves through the industry. |
| 0:36.0 | Anyone who knew anything about the technology surrounding electric cars or indeed was thinking of buying one, may well have found themselves taking note. |
| 0:46.0 | Toyota claimed it was on the brink of being able to manufacture batteries that would power an electric car for journeys longer than 1,200 kilometers or 700 |
| 0:57.6 | miles. Not only that they could be fully charged in an incredible 10 minutes. Toyota's boss, Koju Sato, cast the breakthrough |
| 1:08.8 | as a watershed moment for car making as a whole during a high-profile announcement in Tokyo. |
| 1:15.0 | The commercialization of solid-state batteries is a thing of the future that is now within reach. |
| 1:22.0 | Changing the future of cars. So this week we're asking |
| 1:26.0 | has Toyota solved the electric car battery problem? Part 1 batteries. Batteries. If you go really right the way back to the beginning of the |
| 1:36.2 | automobile there was a bit of a two-horse race between electric vehicles and |
| 1:40.9 | combustion vehicles. It's not a new idea in that sense. Battery-powered vehicles go back right to the dawn of the |
| 1:46.4 | automobile, but it's only really now that they've become increasingly adopted by consumers. |
| 1:51.8 | Over a century ago in 1879, the American engineer Thomas Edison lit up the world with the |
| 1:58.8 | invention for which he is most famous, the electric light bulb. What perhaps is less widely known is that some |
| 2:06.1 | three decades later in 1912, Thomas Edison went on to build three electric cars. If these prototype cars had gone into mass |
| 2:16.9 | production Thomas Edison's influence on the vehicle industry may well have changed |
| 2:21.8 | the course of history. But by then Edison's close friend and |
| 2:26.2 | fellow engineer Henry Ford had forged ahead along another route. A few years before Ford had already put the first affordable mass-produced car on the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.