TOKYO, Oct 12 Reuters Toyota Motor and Idemitsu Kosan have formed an alliance to develop and massproduce allsolidstate batteries for electric vehicles, the companies said on Thursday.

The partnership follows an announcement in June by Toyota, the world39;s biggest automaker by sales, that it would introduce the highperformance batteries to improve the driving range and reduce costs of future EVs in a strategic pivot.

Toyota, which has been slow in adopting purebattery powered EVs, trumpeted at the time a technological breakthrough that addresses durability problems in solidstate batteries and said it is developing means to mass produce those batteries.

Idemitsu and Toyota said in a statement on Thursday they would aim to commercialise the nextgeneration batteries in 202728, followed by fullscale mass production.

Toyota President Koji Sato and Idemitsu President Shunichi Kito will hold a press conference at 3 p.m. 0600 GMT on Thursday.

Solidstate batteries can hold more energy than current liquid electrolyte batteries and automakers and analysts expect them to speed transition to EVs.

An EV powered by a solidstate battery would have a range of 1,200 km and charging time of just 10 minutes, according to Toyota.

Still, such batteries are expensive and likely to remain so for years.

Idemitsu, Japan39;s secondbiggest oil refiner, has been expanding into EV battery supply chains, increasing its stake in Australian lithium developer Delta Lithium to 15 earlier this year…