Despite previous suggestions that Toyota wanted to keep everything in house, the Nikkei reports that it will procure batteries for hybrid vehicles from Sanyo Electric Company starting around 2011.
Toyota has reached the decision because Panasonic EV Energy, its own automotive battery joint venture with Panasonic, cannot keep up with demand.
Now the company will receive supplies of lithium-ion batteries from Sanyo with the first batteries expected to appear in a hybrid mini-van expected to debut in 2011. The company will use them in other types of vehicles moving forward including plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars. Sanyo will supply batteries for at least 10,000 vehicles a year.
The decision comes as hybrids enjoy rapid expansion in Japan, where they now account for close to 10 per cent of all new passenger vehicles sold. Indeed Toyota sold around 430,000 hybrids worldwide last year and has set a target for one million units a year by the middle of the next decade.
Even though Panasonic EV Energy can produce packs for about 700,000 batteries a year it has been unable to keep up with demand which has led to delays in deliveries of the new Prius.
0 comentários:
Enviar um comentário