Toshiba claims its new electric car battery enables 200 miles of range with a 6-minute charge

This week, Japanese electronics giant Toshiba unveiled a new battery that they developed using a new “titanium niobium oxide” anode material.

The company claims the new battery, which is aimed at the automotive market, can enable 200 miles (320 km) of range on an electric car with just 6 minutes of charging.

Its next-generation li-ion battery is the latest iteration of their ‘SCiB’ batteries launched back in 2008.

They claim that the new titanium niobium oxide anode material introduced in the new generation has “doubled” the lithium storage.

That’s just one of many claims that Toshiba is making about the new battery:

“The new battery also offers high energy density and ultra-rapid recharging characteristics, and its titanium niobium oxide anode is much less likely to experience lithium metal deposition during ultra-rapid recharging or recharging in cold conditions—a cause of battery degradation and internal short circuiting.”

They have a 50Ah prototype (pictured above) and they say it maintains over 90% of its initial capacity after being put through 5,000 charge/discharge cycles.

Dr. Osamu Hori, Director of Corporate Research & Development Center at Toshiba Corporation, commented on the announcement:

“We are very excited by the potential of the new titanium niobium oxide anode and the next-generation SCiB^TM. Rather than an incremental improvement, this is a game changing advance that will make a significant difference to the range and performance of EV. We will continue to improve the battery’s performance and aim to put the next-generation SCiB^TM into practical application in fiscal year 2019.”

They are talking about commercialization in 2019.

Electrek’s Take

We rarely cover claims of “battery breakthroughs” because it’s extremely difficult to distinguish what has real potential and what is simply PR fluff.

It’s relatively easy to make a battery capable of fast-charging or having a high energy density, or a battery that is inexpensive or durable, but it’s extremely hard to make a battery good at all those things, which is the holy grail of battery technology.

Toshiba is making a lot of those claims here and while it still seems to be a few years away, the prototype cell seems promising.

If it makes it to market, the new high-power charging stations will have EVs capable of supporting their charge rates.