Toyota works to develop advanced electric-car battery

Toyota Motor Corp said it aims to develop a more advanced electric-car battery "in a few years" that will allow the Japanese automaker to build vehicles with up to 15 percent greater range and battery life than they have currently. “Lithium-ion battery is a key technology for electrifying cars, and there is a clear need, going forward, for improving this technology and its performance even more,” Hisao Yamashige, a battery technology researcher at Toyota, told a media briefing in Tokyo on Thursday. Improving the performance of lithium-ion battery technology is a pressing issue for traditional automakers such as Toyota and new entrants such as Tesla Motors Inc because of its limiting characteristics.