The Electric: The World of Potemkin Solid-State Batteries

In an industry known for braggadocio, Toyota has a decadeslong reputation for tight-lipped reserve, divulging little publicly about what it’s working on before a snazzy new feature or car appears in its showrooms. But it’s made a notable exception. Since 2012, Toyota has routinely touted “breakthrough” progress in an industrywide race to develop solid-state batteries, and predicted that it will be first to deploy the holy grail technology in electric vehicles. Its boasts have captured attention because success would mean the most energy-dense EV battery currently thought possible—lightweight yet able to power an EV for 500 or 600 miles. But if Toyota has been sticking its neck out, it has outsize reasons for doing so: Such an advance could quiet critics who have mercilessly needled the company for its sluggish development of EVs despite being the world’s largest carmaker for most of the last 15 years.