Sanyo Electric has revealed it has future automaker customers for its lithium-ion batteries in Japan, the US and Europe.
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Sanyo is in the process of being acquired by larger consumer electronics Panasonic, which is now in talks with anti-trust regulators to win approval for the planned deal, Reuters noted.
Panasonic’s EV Energy (PEVE) was founded in 1996 to supply nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries for Toyota’s first Prius and continues to supply the automaker today having since made numerous reductions in battery cell and pack size, as well as cost.
Sanyo plans to start production of automotive lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries at two plants in Japan by July 2010 but has previously said little about its customers, raising investor concern about its position in the fast-growing market.
“I cannot name names, but we are working with multiple companies that represent big enough demand to fill the production lines at the new plants,” Sanyo executive vice president Mitsuru Homma told Reuters.
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By GlobalDataSanyo also provides Ni-MH batteries to Honda but is allied with GS Yuasa – a major OEM supplier in Japan – on lithium-ion battery production.
A lithium-ion battery can pack more electricity than a nickel-metal hydride counterpart, enabling a hybrid car to run longer on a single charge.
PEVE and Toyota officials acknowledge that and already use li-ion in a stop-start version of the Vitz (Yaris) sold in Japan. They are also working on li-ion packs for a future Toyota EV but told just-auto in Japan earlier this month that Ni-MH was currently superior in petrol electric hybrids for quality, cost and reliability.
Production costs were also higher with clean-room standards required.
That said, a partial tour of PEVE’s Omori hybrid cell and battery pack production facility, the first by journalists, required special clothing and footwear, plus entry and exit through special air-puff cleaning units.
Besides GS Yuasa and PEVE, Sanyo’s rivals for auto rechargeable batteries include NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, China’s BYD and South Korea’s LG Chem.
Homma told Reuters Sanyo wanted a 25% share of the global market for auto-use rechargeable batteries by 2015, and 40% by 2020, when hybrid and electric vehicle demand was expected to reach up to 8.4m units.
Sanyo did not give its current market share as the global market for hybrid and electric vehicles is still at its nascent stage but Homma said Sanyo’s rechargeable battery sales in the current financial year to March 2010 may exceed its original estimates, helped by recovering demand from PC, mobile phone and digital camera makers and brisk sales of hybrid cars.
He said demand for auto-use batteries had simply been heading “straight up”.
PEVE told just-auto it had shipped over 2m battery packs and, once a third plant opens in Japan next year, would have capacity for 1m a year. Most production goes to Toyota which recently set up a special unit for battery research.
