Toyota using A.I. as part of battery research grants

Journalists look at the redesigned Toyota Motor Prius plug-in hybrid vehicle, one of the automaker's electrified models (Photo: TORU YAMANAKA, AFP/Getty Images) DETROIT -- Toyota plans to spend $35 million on partnerships with universities to study ways to make better batteries for electric vehicles and test possible solutions using artificial intelligence. The Japanese automaker said the universities will also explore whether other materials, such as magnesium, could be used to make improved batteries, said Brian Storey, program manager for the Toyota Research Institute, which is based in Los Altos, Calif., but has offices in Ann Arbor and Cambridge, Mass. Today's hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles are powered by lithium-ion batteries -- a technology that Storey said was invented nearly 40 years ago. "And we are just now beginning to perfect them," Storey said. The problem facing the auto industry is that existing batteries continue to be costly and have range limitations that have held back industry sales compared with cheaper, but less fuel-efficient gasoline engines.