[M오토데일리 박상우 기자] The battery developed by Toshiba, a Japanese electronic device manufacturer, is becoming a dominant addition to the electric vehicle that Apple will release in 2024. The combination of a next-generation electric vehicle platform developed by Foxconn under Taiwan’s Honhai Group and a lithium iron phosphate battery from China’s largest battery company has been mentioned as a strong candidate for Apple cars.
According to foreign media on the 27th (local time), Apple has secretly tested the lithium titanate battery (LTO) developed by Toshiba, Japan.
Lithium titanate battery is a modified lithium-ion battery that uses lithium-titanate oxide instead of carbon on the surface of the positive electrode.It is more durable than carbon-applied batteries, so it can be charged in low temperature environments as well as ultra-fast charging. You can charge up to %. In particular, it is known to have a long life enough to maintain more than 90% capacity even after performing up to 7,000 charging cycles.
Toshiba named this battery SCiB (Super Charge ion Battery), launched it in 2007, and started mass production in 2008. This battery was first used in i-MiEV, a pure electric vehicle launched by Mitsubishi of Japan in 2009. Since then, it has been mounted on eco-friendly cars sold by Japan’s Mazda, Suzuki, Nissan, and Mitsubishi, as well as trains, ships, and industrial equipment, and a next-generation battery with improved performance was unveiled in 2017.
Foxconn announced in October 2024 that it will launch and start selling the world’s first all-solid-state battery.
All-solid-state batteries are known to have a high level of safety since the anode, cathode, and electrolyte are all solid, and there is no risk of electrolyte leakage from the current main battery, the lithium-ion battery. According to Fuji Economy, a Japanese research institute, the all-solid battery market is estimated to reach 28 trillion won in 2035.
Foxconn said that it is developing an all-solid-state battery in collaboration with China’s CATL and has made great progress.
The all-solid-state battery they are developing uses LMNO (lithium manganese nickel oxide) as the positive electrode and SiC (silicon-carbon) as the negative electrode, and plans to develop a battery without the negative electrode in the future. In addition, the electrolyte is expected to be composed of a metal oxide ceramic film, which is being studied from 2017. Foxconn explained that the additives that helped in the development were effective in increasing battery cycle life by 10% and reducing battery weight by 50%.
It plans to use a cloud-based artificial intelligence management system to collect all big data from the battery and make the most of what each battery pack provides.
There are many views that look at Foxconn’s goal negatively. This is because companies that have developed all-solid-state batteries such as Toyota, Samsung, Hyundai Motors, and Tesla for a long time have not yet revealed the specific timing of commercialization, and there is a possibility that they will release ahead of Foxconn because of the technologies they have accumulated.
Apple is considering a strategy to develop next-generation cars, but to produce and sell vehicles in partnership with existing automakers. It is expected that Apple will develop and produce batteries through collaboration with battery manufacturers rather than self-developing and producing batteries.
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