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Toyota and Panasonic launch joint venture to make electric car batteries

Toyota and Panasonic are launching a joint venture next year to make electric vehicle (EV) batter...
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10.45 22 Jan 2019


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Toyota and Panasonic launch jo...

Toyota and Panasonic launch joint venture to make electric car batteries

Newstalk
Newstalk

10.45 22 Jan 2019


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Toyota and Panasonic are launching a joint venture next year to make electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

The two Japanese firms are to create a new company aimed at the automotive prismatic battery business by the end of 2020.

However it is still pending approval from competition-law authorities.

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The venture will see Toyota own a 51% stake, while Panasonic will take 49%.

The scope of the business will cover research, development, production engineering, manufacturing and management related to the batteries.

Toyota will also transfer equipment and personnel in the areas of development and production engineering.

For its part, Panasonic will transfer equipment, liabilities, personnel and other assets for development, production engineering, manufacturing and procurement.

Some 3,500 employees from both companies will be involved.

Manufacturing will be based at plants in Japan and China - with the products being sold to automakers in principle through Panasonic.

A logo on a Panasonic facility in Denver, Colorado | Image: Kris Tripplaar/SIPA USA/PA Images

In a joint statement, the companies said: "Today's automotive world is also being called on by society to help find solutions to such issues as those related to global warming, resources, and energy.

"As vehicle electrification accelerates toward the solving of such environmental issues, batteries are a most-important element.

"However, numerous battery-related challenges must be tackled, including not only having advanced technological capabilities to address issues of cost, energy density, charging time, and safety, but also being able to ensure stable supply capacity and having effective recycling structures.

"The business environment is one in which independent efforts by battery manufacturers or automobile manufacturers are not enough for solving the issues concerned."

Toyota executive vice-president Shigeki Terashi said: "Together with Panasonic, we want to hone our competitiveness in batteries, which represent one of the core technologies of electrified vehicles.

"By contributing to the popularization of Toyota's and other automakers' electrified vehicles, we want to help find solutions to issues such as global warming, environment-related challenges, and energy-related challenges."

While Panasonic senior managing executive officer, Masahisa Shibata, added: "Uniting with Toyota's battery and production-engineering technologies provides us an excellent opportunity for being able to evolve our automotive prismatic batteries, which have an established track record of performance and safety, faster than ever.

"Through the electrification of vehicles, we want to accelerate our contribution to the realization of a society of mobility that is kind to the environment."

Toyota has previously set a target of annual global sales of more than 5.5 million units of electrified vehicles.

The tie-up follows an announcement by German rival Volkswagen, which is creating a power supply company as part of a push towards electric vehicles.

It is to develop products and services connected with energy and charging for the group's brands.

The company will gradually build up a portfolio of power tariffs, wallboxes and charging stations.

It will also offer green power to customers outside the group, which will be from renewable sources that are 100% CO2-neutral.


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