Solid-state batteries are a type of EV battery that uses a solid material inside instead of a liquid. The goal is to make batteries safer and able to store more energy, which could help EVs go farther without getting heavier.
This is a special kind of solid-state battery that uses a liquid metal in the design. The hope is to get better battery performance while still keeping the benefits of solid-state construction.
Factorial Energy is a company working on battery technology. In this story, they’re the ones developing the new solid-state battery approach being discussed.
Xiyu Huang is the CEO of the battery company Factorial Energy. He’s the person explaining what their solid-state battery work could mean for EVs and why it’s taking shape now.
Mercedes is the car company involved in this battery project. It matters because it shows a major automaker is putting money and engineering into newer EV battery technology.
Energy density means how much energy the battery can pack into its size and weight. If it’s higher, the EV can often go farther without adding a lot of extra battery mass.
The Porsche 911 is Porsche’s famous sports car. Here, Porsche makes a special 911 that matches a character from the movie—same color and details—and then sells it at an auction for charity.
Monterey Car Week is a major car event in California with auctions and big collector attention. Here, it’s where these special cars are shown and sold for charity.
Timo Resch is identified here as the head of Porsche Cars North America. The segment uses his involvement to explain how the Toy Story project got started and coordinated between Porsche and Pixar.
Sonderwunsch is Porsche’s custom-order team for special one-off requests. It means these cars weren’t just stickers—they were built with real engineering and detailed finishing work.
A paint booth is a special room where cars are painted under controlled conditions. The host is saying the custom paint took a huge amount of time to get right.
“Easter eggs” are little hidden details you only notice if you look closely. In this case, the Toy Story-themed Porsche has secret references in the paint and interior that fans can discover.
A special mold is a custom form used to make something with a specific shape or design. The host is saying the tire was made with a custom mold so it could include the Lightyear branding.
Goodyear is a well-known tire company. In this story, they’re involved in the themed cars by making tires with Lightyear branding and movie-style hidden details.
The Ford Ranger is a pickup truck, meaning it has a cargo bed for hauling things. It’s designed to be useful for work and also practical for regular driving. The podcast is referencing a themed name that connects the Ranger idea to “Space Ranger.”
Philanthropic refers to actions intended to benefit others, often through charity or fundraising. The host connects the themed Porsche sales to a charitable angle, saying previous versions were sold for charity and implying these will have a similar philanthropic component.
Brand awareness means how many people remember a brand and what they think of it. Here, Porsche is trying to get more people talking about Porsche by using a big, fun Toy Story connection.
A red carpet premiere is a high-profile event where celebrities, media, and photographers gather, creating lots of visible coverage. The hosts argue that having multiple custom Porsche cars parked up front is a deliberate way to maximize attention and publicity.
“Bespoke” means custom-made for you, not something off-the-shelf. Here it’s about Porsche tailoring details like paint for a specific project or customer.
“Jesse White Metallic” is the name of a special custom paint color used on the Toy Story-themed car. It’s meant to match the character’s outfit details—specifically the “pearl” look.
“Earned media” means free publicity that happens because people talk about it and share it. In this case, the Toy Story Porsche is designed to get attention online without being a traditional ad.
LIVE
Solid-state batteries are going from hype to reality, and this week on Shift,
we're digging into what new battery chemistries could be for cost and EV adoption.
Factorial Energy CEO Xiyu Huang talks about developing a new solid-state liquid-metal
battery with Mercedes, an innovation that could change the weight and the cost of new vehicles.
With the same energy, we could deliver a lighter pack,
which eventually will be able to drive down the cost of the vehicle.
Huang also explains how competition with China is affecting the solid-state market
and the geopolitical tensions impacting the arrival of solid-state batteries.
Join us for Shift, available this Sunday wherever you get your podcasts.
And so are my 6 and 11-year-old children, because it is Pixar-related, specifically
Toy Story, and it has to do with what Porsche is doing. They just rolled out three custom 911s,
themed after Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and Jesse, and they were just on the red carpet for the
Toy Story 5 premiere. And I'm here with our own Jack Wallsworth, who covers Volkswagen Group and
its brands, including Porsche for us at Automotive News. Jack, it's so good to have you on this bonus
episode. Hi, Jack. Good to be here. All right. So, again, like I said, my kids are huge Pixar fans.
They love Toy Story, and so I'm especially geeked out for this one. So, Jack, I'm curious how this
collaboration came about in the first place, because it's not just Porsche's marketing team
cold-calling Disney. There's actually a real backstory here.
Yeah, there is, and it's super interesting. And I should say too, Jake, as a 31-year-old,
I'm also pretty excited about this. I think this is a cross-generational thing from 6-year-old
to 3-year-old. But yeah, so this really goes back to 2006 with the different Pixar movies. So,
our listeners might be aware that the movie Cars came out in 2006, and one of the main characters
in Cars is Sally Carrera, who is a Porsche. And this is kind of really what set all this stuff
into motion. So, back when that movie came out at the premiere, the life-size Sally Carrera was
made, that car is now part of the Porsche Museum in Germany. It's actually kind of on a tour of sorts
that was at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona back in January. So, it's kind of on a world tour.
And then in 2022, Porsche built an actual 911, the exact same color as Sally, all the same wheels,
every detail from the movie character brought it to real life. And the car was auctioned off
during Monterey Car Week for charity and sold for around $3.6 million. So, I think that kind of
showed the power of nostalgia for bringing a fictitious character to life when it's something
tied to Porsche. So, that kind of was the backstory. And then back in 2024, a couple of Pixar executives
were chatting with the head of Porsche Cars North America, Timo Resch, at Monterey Car Week,
and approached him with this idea of, hey, what if we work again on a project? We'll bring three
different Toy Story characters to car form, and then again, sell the cars for cherry. So,
basically, these three cars was timed back in 2024. Toy Story 5 is now just coming out. So,
kind of a multi-year process. And Porsche has a department within the company that handles bespoke
orders, one-offs, customers want to restore their vehicle. It's the Sonderwunsch team,
which is German for special dreams, something like that. And so, they worked with Pixar to make
these cars. It's kind of funny, but these cars come to life. And it's really interesting. I think
Porsche, for a long time, has been known for having the ability to make
customer vehicles as unique as they want them to be. I think this is kind of like a really
vivid example of them doing that, for sure. It's important to note that that was the team that
did this, right? I mean, these aren't just slapped together with some decals. I mean, this is a serious
effort. So, what does that tell us about how seriously the company took this project?
Yeah, I think that kind of really says everything you need to know in a way. So,
one of the execs from the team mentioned that everything that went into these cars was as if
they were a regular production vehicle. So, Porsche is not going to offer the Buzz Lightyear
paint scheme, but they had to make sure everything would work as if it was for a regular production
vehicle. So, it took a lot of man hours, took a lot of time, development for the Buzz
Lightyear paint that took over 350 hours in the paint booth. From a distance in the photos on
our story, you might think, oh, those are just graphics that are attached on, but everything is
painted on. So, I think with the exception of Woody's stickers in one of the windows, all the
time. But that also leads to a lot of cool Easter eggs, so too. So, if you were to open the doors
on the Buzz Lightyear car, the bottom of the door is red and light pattern, just like the wings
on the Buzz Lightyear character. On the Jesse car, there's a lot of stitching on the shoulder
length or on the shoulder spot of the seats. Porsche has never done that before. That's kind
of tied into her outfit. And then with Woody, it's a blue car, but there's three different
paint colors were made for that color. And then to give it a denim feel, like Woody's
character wears jeans, Porsche actually took denim and kind of pressed that onto the wet paint,
which you would probably never do with a production car, but they did it for this, which is super
cool. So, I haven't seen the cars in person, but from everything we were told, if you look at the
cars in person, there's just no shortage of Easter eggs that I'm sure kids would pick up on or,
older fans would as well. What was the thinking behind the pairings of the characters and the
vehicles and what were some of the design details that stood out to you? Yeah, so I think it kind
of seemed like each car kind of matches the character. So, for the Buzz Lightyear car,
it's a 911 RS, which is like the top tier performance spec. It has a huge wing, so that is
like an obvious, it's like a home run fit for Buzz, given that the character has wings that
come out of the back. So, I think that one made a lot of sense, you know, Jesse Carr is a career,
it's an open top, so that kind of, or target top, I should say, and you know, that kind of
leads well with the painted red, so it matches her red hat. And then Woody, you know, the classic 911,
Woody's the old fashioned toy, the timeless classic, and that's kind of why they picked that one.
Each one just kind of has details that I think highlight the car, but then also the character
they're trying to, you know, pair it with, if it makes sense. Like the Buzz one's probably the
one that's like, oh, that's like a mix, makes all the sense in the world. And with the Buzz
car, that's probably my favorite. I think probably one of the reasons I like it the most is the tires
are Goodyear tires, but Goodyear actually made a special mold that says Lightyear, which is just
so cool. And that's obviously a nod to the character and Pixar, and you know, one of the
probably the most iconic names out of the whole Pixar universe. So that is super neat. There's
also a bunch of Easter eggs on the tires themselves. I haven't seen them in person yet, but hoping to
one day I'd be able to take it in. So super, super cool stuff. As a Pixar nerd myself and a father,
you can see in so many Pixar movies, not just the Toy Story movies, that when you see tires
and the brands of the tires, it almost always says Lightyear. So that's so cool. It's, you know,
Pixar is a movie studio, a film studio that loves its Easter eggs. And it sounds like it's,
this is staying very true to it. I also assume not to overload with Pixar Easter eggs here, but
the Buzz car, it probably cannot fly. It's also probably frown upon any trying to fall with style
at the same time. No, this one will keep you grounded, but that's what it's meant to do. But
I should know one of the Pixar folks mentioned, so it's the 911 RS, but they would like to call it
the 911 SR for Space Ranger, which again is just like, it's like these, these cars were meant to be
reflecting Toy Story characters, which is, which is super fun. Now you mentioned that with previous
versions of this same kind of thing that they've sold the cars for charity, that there's a philanthropic
piece to this. I assume that's also true for these cars. Yes. So the three will be sold to a
private seller or sellers in the coming weeks. Porsche didn't have all the details yet. We'll
be getting that later in the summer. They won't be auctioned. So unlike the Sally car, they'll just
be sold. I'm guessing we'll get information in the coming weeks or so. But I'm guessing it'll
still be for, if they share the amount, I would imagine it's going to be a pretty big number.
I'm not sure if it'll be quite as big as the Sally car, just given that that was
taking an actual character and you're making into a car, whereas these are
character inspired vehicles. Having said that, if you're a grandparent that has a Toy Story
enthusiast grandchild, or if you're an older millennial with a lot of money, I hope the sky is
the limit on that one. So what do you think is reach for the sky or reach for the stars?
Maybe we'll speak to that, but it'll be super important. The charities that they're supporting
are Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross, and Starlight Children's
Foundation. So again, Porsche, back with the Sally car. I went to charity and with these,
they're really spreading the philanthropic efforts, for sure. Yeah. Sorry, kids. I probably won't be
in this one. We probably will not be taking home one of these at our house, at least. But
I'm sure they will go to a good home. Now, Jack, as a business podcast, we should probably get to
the business angle here. This isn't a major move by Porsche, but I think that there's
something to it. What does this do for Porsche? What does this do for their marketing, for their
brand awareness? What's the goal for them? Yeah, it definitely seems like almost a natural
marketing move, given the car's connection. So these three cars, we're all at the red carpet
premiere. Obviously, red carpet premieres are pretty big. It's a high profile event with a lot
of eyeballs. Having three of your cars parked right up front is probably going to get a lot of
attention. But it just seems like a really uniquely Porsche marketing play. I don't think every
car maker could do this. I think if another brand whipped up some Toy Story cars, it might feel
kind of forced or just not overly authentic. And I think with Porsche, it's a little bit
different, again, given the car's connection. So it's got a lot of media coverage. A lot of my
colleagues at other publications did a lot of cool stories on it. And on social media,
this is perfect for a TikTok or an Instagram reel to really show the coolness of the cars.
So I think it's probably a way for Porsche to put their name out there in a unique setting,
but then also kind of like what we were talking at the beginning, it's something that really crosses
many generations. I mean, if you're a child 6 or 11, you're going to have interest in Toy Story.
If you see pictures of this, you'd be super excited if you're an older millennial,
like we are. You remember when those movies came out. And then if you're a grandparent,
you want to keep everyone happy too. So that's one of those things that I think really speaks
across a whole range of ages, which is cool. And at the same time, it also, speaking of the
business case, it does show the strength of what Porsche can do with some of their one-offs or
some of their bespoke offerings. Making a paint that feels like jeans is really neat. And again,
I don't know if they'll do that often, but if you're a Porsche customer and you have the bank
account, they might do it now. Or they know that they can do it. So in another way, I think
this is definitely a marketing move, but it also really shows the strength and the ability of Porsche's
bespoke team, which is something cool. It's probably something that not every brand can do,
and I think that's definitely noteworthy here. So it's cool that it took the form of a Buzz Light
car, a Jesse car, or a Woody car. So all a good fun. And I should note on the Jesse car,
one cool detail, they made up a new paint color. So it's supposed to symbolize the pearls on her
outfit. So it's now called Jesse White Metallic, I believe, which is really neat. So who knows,
maybe the order book will one day include that paint color for future Porsche's.
We can only hope. That's so cool. I mean, the idea of paint that feels like jeans is just like,
that's the kind of innovation that geeks me out a little bit. And I think you hit the nail on the
head really with the social media aspect of this that seems like automakers are really looking for
ways to get that like real earned media and reach new audiences. And you're right,
this is perfect for TikTok or Instagram. So Jack, really appreciate you covering the story and coming
on the podcast to talk about it. Thanks so much. Anytime, Jake, it was super fun.
And you can read all of Jack's reporting on this and other stories at autonews.com.
Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of Daily Drive. We'll be back on Monday with a brand new
full episode of the show.
About this episode
The show starts with next-gen EV battery talk, including solid-state liquid-metal work with Mercedes. It then pivots to Porsche’s Toy Story 5 premiere: three custom 911s themed after Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and Jesse, built with Pixar’s involvement and engineered like regular production cars. Details range from fully painted-on character cues to denim pressed into wet paint and Goodyear tires with Lightyear branding. The hosts frame the whole rollout as a high-visibility, social-ready marketing strategy.
Porsche rolled out three custom 911s themed after Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie for the red carpet premiere of Toy Story 5. Automotive News Staff Reporter Jack Walsworth joins Executive Producer Jake Neher to break down how the Porsche-Pixar relationship started, what went into building the cars and what it means for Porsche’s brand and bespoke business.
