Toyota to offer a lithium-ion home battery system your car can charge

Enlarge / Toyota's new home storage system will let an EV power a house. (credit: Toyota)

The Toyota Motor Corporation has decided to get into the home battery sector. Earlier this month, the automaker announced its O-Uchi Kyuden System, a home energy store that provides "long service life, high quality, good value for price, and high performance," according to the company.

It's a surprising move from the world's largest OEM, given that its supply of lithium-ion batteries is so constrained that it has to use battery packs from different suppliers for its new bZ4x electric crossover, depending on whether the EV is configured as a single or twin-motor variant.

The O-Uchi Kyuden system is more than just a battery pack for your house; there is also a DC-DC converter, which feeds into a power conditioner that can use energy from the battery pack or the house's photovoltaic cells, it if has them. The pack has a capacity of 8.7 kWh and a maximum rated output of 5.5 kW.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments