The world's number one rechargeable battery maker is seeking out new automotive clients in an attempt to stay on top of the heap. With its competitor, Matsushita (Panasonic), snapping at its heels with plans to triple output, Sanyo is on the hunt for new contracts from auto manufacturers. Sanyo's nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries are already in the Ford Escape hybrid but it is lithium ion where the company will no doubt want to focus its efforts, especially given that companies like Audi seem keen on the newer tech. They are also currently investing billions in that effort.

Using something of a shotgun approach, Sanyo says it's in talks with 5 or 6 different companies on three different continents.They had already been cooperating with Volkswagen on lithium ion batteries for hybrids coming to market in 2010. Volkswagen is also presumed to use that company's batteries for its planned all-electric vehicles as well. In a boast to Reuters, Sanyo Electric Senior Vice President Masato Ito said of their nearest competitor, "By the time Matsushita has raised its capacity to 75 million, ours will be well over 100 million." We can only hope that all this increased investment and battery braggadocio will result in lower prices.

[Source: Guardian]

The Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., better known to us in the west under the Panasonic brand, has "informally decided" to spend about $951 million (100 billion yen) constructing what would be one of the world's biggest li-ion battery factories. This would triple the company's current capacity with its three existing plants, place it ahead of Sony and very close to the worlds number one, Sanyo. The three companies together currently control about 70 percent of the consumer electronics li-ion market.

The additional 50 million units a month capacity would help the company meet surging demand and be used in laptops, cell phones, and, of course, automobiles. They have been studying what it would take to make li-ion for automotive applications via their joint venture with Toyota that goes by the catchy moniker of Panasonic EV Energy. They expect the new plant to be able to ship product as soon as two years from now.

[Source: Yomiuri Online / Reuters]

Toyota has announced it will offer a plug-in hybrid vehicle with lithium-ion batteries (most likely, for lease, not for sale) in Japan, the U.S. and Europe by 2010. This is the confirmation of the success of Toyota's PHEV Prius plan and tests in Japan and in UC Davis. Batteries will be supplied by the joint venture that Toyota set up with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which will begin producing lithium-ion batteries in 2009 and will move into full-scale production in 2010. While this sort of official confirmation is nice, Toyota isn't revealing everything: the company said are working in a new type of battery which could outperform lithium-ion, but didn't explain further). It seems that Toyota doesn't want to fall behind GM's Volt.

During the press conference announcing the PHEV Prius, Toyota confirmed its plans to produce the Camry Hybrid in Australia and Thailand and showed off its improvements in gas mileage for both gasoline and clean diesel models (sold under the DCAT label in Europe).

Update: Don't get too excited yet. We checked with Toyota spokesman Curt McCallister who confirmed that nothing has changed with Toyota's PHEV plans Since CEO Watanabe spoke at the Detroit Auto Show in January. The Panasonic EV plant will begin making lithium batteries late in 2009. However, 2010 will only see a few hundred plug-in Priuses available to government and commercial fleets for testing. The PHEVs would not be available in higher volumes to retail customers until 2011-12 at least.

[Source: AP]

Matsushita Battery Industrial Co has stopped production of lithium ion batteries at their plant near Osaka Japan after a fire at one of the two manufacturing lines. The line that had the fire makes batteries for laptop batteries while the adjacent line that makes cell phone batteries was also shut down. The cell phone battery line makes units for Nokia that were part of a current recall and replacement campaign because of issues with overheating and explosions.

Matsushita sells products under the Panasonic brand and has a joint venture with Toyota called Panasonic EV energy that makes NiMH batteries for hybrids. This doesn't bode well for Toyota and it may be part of the reasoning behind Toyota trying to cool the lithium battery hype recently. It's not clear what the cause of the fire was but this certainly doesn't look good.

[Source: JCN Network]