Toyota and Mazda start tests of energy storage system using electrified vehicle batteries

Toyota Motor Corporation and Mazda Motor Corporation have started field tests of Toyota’s Sweep Energy Storage System at Mazda’s Hiroshima Plant in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The system rapidly switches each battery’s power flow on and off, even when new batteries are connected to degraded or different capacity batteries.

For the tests, the power system at Mazda’s headquarters campus—the only power generation system operated by an automaker in Japan—and Toyota’s system that utilizes batteries from electrified vehicles will be connected through their respective energy management systems. This will enable the verification of stable, high-quality, and efficient charging and discharging.

In the future, the storage system will be used to regulate power supply and demand from renewable energy, which fluctuates depending on weather and time of day, contributing to carbon neutrality.

The tests are aimed to contribute to building a battery ecosystem, which is part of the seven mobility industry issues that the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association is addressing across the industry. In support of stable procurement of critical resources and building a resilient supply chain, the battery ecosystem is aimed to sustainably reuse batteries in Japan, including electrified vehicle batteries.