Sanyo Completes New Factory for Automotive Li-ion Batteries; Initial Capacity of 1M Cells Per Month
31 July 2010
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. has completed its new factory for automotive lithium-ion batteries in its Kasai Plant (Kasai city, Hyogo prefecture, Japan.) The factory will start with a production capacity of 1 million cells per month, with the aim to expand the production scale depending on demand.
Sanyo has already been supplying nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries for hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) to Ford, Honda and Volkswagen, and co-developing NiMH batteries with PSA Peugeot Citroën.
In addition, Sanyo is co-developing lithium-ion batteries for hybrids (HEVs) with the Volkswagen group. Sanyo lithium-ion batteries for Plug-in HEVs (PHEVs) will also be applied in Suzuki vehicles.
The completion of the new factory will make it possible for Sanyo to further meet demands of the lithium-ion batteries from various auto makers.
Earlier in the week, Panasonic, which already has a 50.05% stake in Sanyo as of last year (earlier post) made a tender offer to purchase the remaining shares of Sanyo Electric Co and Panasonic Electric Works (PEW). Sanyo would thus become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Panasonic, rather than a consolidated subsidiary as it is currently. Panasonic will offer ¥138 per share (US $1.60) per share of Sanyo to complete the acquisition.
In June, an EV racing car powered by Sanyo Lithium-ion battery systems hit an all-time record for electric vehicles (EV) at the 2010 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado.
The EV racing car owned by Team Yokohama EV Challenge, a team of The Yokohama Rubber Company, participated in car/truck class of the exhibition division, and finished with 13 minutes 17 seconds as the best time, breaking a previous record of 14 minutes 33 seconds.
The 37 kWh (385V, 96 Ah) pack in the car comprised 6,656 cylindrical 18650-format cells.
If anyone still doubts the inevitable move to EVs - you have to wonder what all these major manufacturers of EV drivetrain components and batteries are doing. Clearly there is a concerted rampup of manufacturing batteries and power control systems in anticipation of massive adoption of EVs going forward.
goodbye OPEC. Hello energy independence.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 31 July 2010 at 10:16 AM
"1 million cells per month"
That is quite a capacity. They are still hedging their bets making cylindrical 18650-format cells used in laptops, but larger format prismatic cells for EVs could be the big volume soon.
Posted by: SJC | 31 July 2010 at 12:14 PM
Hev... its the hev market they are betting on. A compact hev battery is exactly what they all want to produce in bulk. After that its somewhat larger plug in hybrid packs and waaay down the list its ev packs.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 31 July 2010 at 01:53 PM
"(PHEVs) will also be applied in Suzuki vehicles."
I don't know what they are betting on, but I would bet on PHEV.
Posted by: SJC | 31 July 2010 at 02:59 PM
.
I'm just thankful that they are destroying someone else's environment and ground water with the strip mining, and other Earth destroying techniques, that must be used for battery material. People from other countries don't look like us so they can be harmed without guilt, right?
.
Posted by: The Goracle | 31 July 2010 at 03:58 PM
Yeah that is something to be REAL grateful for.
Posted by: SJC | 31 July 2010 at 09:12 PM