The approval date was wrong by more than a year
No government approval for Toyota battery production happened in October 2025. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, an agency called METI, certified battery development and production plans from Toyota in September 2024, over a year earlier. The certified plans came from 2 Toyota subsidiaries, Prime Planet Energy Solution and Toyota Battery, the second renamed from Primeearth EV Energy in October 2024. What happened in October 2025 was a separate business decision, not a second government approval. Toyota and Sumitomo Metal Mining, a mining company, announced they were moving joint work on cathode material, an ingredient inside a battery cell, from research into mass production.
What certification actually grants
The certification came under the Economic Security Promotion Act, a Japanese law that names storage batteries as 1 of 15 materials the government calls critical to protect from supply disruption. Under the law, a company submits what the law calls a supply secure plan for a critical material, and if the Ministry certifies it, the company gains access to subsidies, long term low interest loans, equity investment and credit guarantees. That is what certification means for Toyota. The government did not grant permission to build a plant that Toyota otherwise lacked. It agreed to help pay for a plan that was already Toyota own decision.
These are targets Toyota stated in September 2024, not measured results. 2 rows share the value 1,000 because the High Performance and all solid state batteries carry the same targeted range, only the label and the underlying chemistry differ.
Show the numbers
| Performance, targeted 2026 | 800 |
| Popularization, targeted 2027 | 600 |
| High Performance, targeted 2028 | 1,000 |
| All solid state, targeted 2028 | 1,000 |
A roadmap that has already slipped 3 times
The certified plan targets 9 gigawatt hours of annual battery production capacity. A gigawatt hour measures the energy a factory of batteries can produce running at full output for an hour. A staged roadmap from Toyota, dated September 2024, targets a performance battery with around 800 kilometres of range for 2026, a lower cost battery with around 600 kilometres for the end of 2027, and 2 batteries reaching over 1,000 kilometres with charging in under 10 minutes, one lithium ion and one all solid state, both due around 2028. None of these 4 figures is a measured result, each a target Toyota set before any of the dates arrived.
The solid state battery date Toyota has stated has slipped repeatedly. Toyota initially planned to launch the battery in 2020, then pushed the launch to 2023, then to 2026, and now targets 2028. Counting from the original 2020 plan to the current 2028 target is an 8 year slip, MAOWCE own arithmetic on the 2 dates Toyota has given.
This is MAOWCE own arithmetic on the 4 dates Toyota has stated over time, reported by source 2, subtracting the original 2020 plan from each later date. The original 2020 plan is not itself plotted, since it is the 0 point every bar is measured against.
Show the numbers
| 2023 target | 3 |
| 2026 target | 6 |
| 2028 target | 8 |
What a Toyota executive says about the battery
Keiji Kaita, president of Toyota Carbon Neutral Advanced Engineering Development Center, spoke about the technology at the Tokyo Motor Show.
For the all solid state battery, the characteristic is high power, compact, and long range.
Keiji Kaita, president of Toyota Carbon Neutral Advanced Engineering Development Center. Source 2.
Asked which model gets the battery first, Kaita said the company has not decided.
Whether it will be a Lexus or Toyota, we will leave that to your imagination.
Keiji Kaita, president of Toyota Carbon Neutral Advanced Engineering Development Center. Source 2.
Independent confirmation, and the gap between a plan and a battery
The International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental body, independently confirms Toyota tested a first solid state prototype in 2021 and has announced a 2028 launch, without endorsing or disputing that date. A solid state battery swaps the liquid, flammable electrolyte that ordinarily carries lithium ions between the 2 electrodes inside a battery for a solid material instead, cutting the risk of leaks and overheating. In published tests, the best results held 87% of capacity after 500 charge cycles, over 80% after 750 cycles, and stable cycling past 1,000 cycles, all in lab scale cells far smaller than a production car battery.
These are lab scale cells from published research generally, not a Toyota product and not tested by Toyota. The largest cell measured here is a 0.6 amp hour pouch cell, far smaller than a production electric vehicle cell.
Show the numbers
| NCM811 against a sulfide electrolyte, 87% capacity left | 500 |
| NCM89 full cell, over 80% capacity left | 750 |
| NMC against an argyrodite sulfide electrolyte, stable cycling | 1,000 |
A certified plan and a mass produced car battery remain 2 different things. The certification Toyota holds funds development. It does not guarantee the 2028 date, which has already moved 3 times before.