At present, the commercialization process of autonomous vehicles is accelerating, and mass production plans have been announced one after another. However, before that, the key battery technology needs to be upgraded, otherwise it may be difficult to meet the battery life needs.

　　According to foreign media reports, a lithium-ion battery investor revealed that when self-driving cars enter the large-scale mass production stage, battery manufacturers need to reconsider battery and other related technical issues.

　　Akira Yoshino, a lithium-ion battery prototype developer, said that in addition to focusing on improving battery capacity, battery manufacturers also need to develop some equipment to cope with the almost continuous driving and short-distance travel of future shared autonomous vehicles.

　　Yoshino, an honorary employee of Asahi Kasei, the world's largest battery separator manufacturer, said in an interview: "Ten people sharing a car means it will be driven more than 10 times, so durability is very important.

　　Yoshino said that while manufacturers need to focus on improving battery energy density and reducing costs, they also need to develop materials that can better handle the constant expansion and contraction of batteries. And if the need to increase energy density is reduced at the same time, then this task becomes easier. Energy density is also the most important factor in cruising range. For example, lithium titanate can be used in the positive and negative electrodes of batteries, most of which currently use carbon.

　　Yoshino said: "Automotive is a completely new application area, and we have to wait before we find the batteries we actually need. The future of batteries depends on the development trend of the automotive industry."

　　In the early 1980s, at Asahi Kasei Laboratories, Yoshino began to develop polyacetylene, a conductive polymer discovered by Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize winner Hideki Shirakawa. Although it can be used in solar panels and semiconductors, Yoshino is focusing on battery technology, especially as small electronic devices start to enter the market.

　　Yoshino successfully developed a lithium-ion battery using polyacetylene as the positive and negative electrodes, although later it was mainly carbon. Sony used lithium-ion batteries in mobile phones in 1991, defeating Asahi Kasei in promoting the commercialization of lithium-ion batteries. The following year, Asahi Kasei also formed a joint venture with Toshiba to produce and sell the company's batteries.

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