The Toyota Research Institute (TRI), founded in 2015 is collaborating with Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, the University at Buffalo the University of Connecticut, and the UK-based materials science company Ilika. Together, they will work on Toyota’s vision of reducing the CO2 emissions from new vehicles, across the globe, to 10% by 2050. The research could have implications across various industries and not just zero-emission transport.
Over the next four years, the program with aim to identify new advanced battery materials and fuel-cell catalysts. The TRI has always held materials science at the core of its operations but, up until now, this has been focused on hydrogen fuel cells. Yet, if the effort is properly applied, then the TRI could make breakthroughs in the modelling and efficiency of batteries.
According to TRI’s press release, a parallel research program will work alongside the first to develop the tools and processes needed via “advanced computational materials modeling, new sources of experimental data, machine learning and artificial intelligence.” Those two arms of research will come together with the aim of reducing the amount of time with which it takes for materials development.