toyota panasonic deal i
John Mahoney23 Jan 2019
NEWS

Toyota partners Panasonic for rapid electric car expansion

New joint venture with Panasonic will see Toyota enter the battery-making business

Toyota has announced that it will combine forces with battery technology experts Panasonic to help it rapidly expand the number of pure-electric vehicles it makes.

The new joint venture, announced overnight, will see Toyota the dominant force in the partnership, owning a 51 per cent part of the new battery manufacturing business with Panasonic.

Building on an original deal struck between Panasonic and Toyota back in 2017, the new relationship is seen as one of the world's largest car-makers making a move to control and protect the source of lithium-ion cells for all its future pure-electric cars.

As part of the new arrangement, the two companies will pool existing battery-related technology from 2020, basing manufacturing equipment and engineers at facilities in Japan and China.

In total, 3500 employees will be involved in the new joint venture.

Batteries will then be produced not just for Toyota but sold to various car-makers.

Panasonic remains one of the biggest battery suppliers but its position as a global leader has long been under threat from South Korean manufacturers like Samsung and LG Chem.

Interestingly, Panasonic's new partnership with Toyota might fill the void left by a similar arrangement with Tesla.

Recent reports suggest the pioneering pure-electric car-maker is in talks with other battery companies including China's Tianjin Lishin, who look likely to supply lithium-ion cells to the US car-maker's new Shanghai car plant.

Toyota and Panasonic's new venture will run in parallel with its existing Prime Earth EV Energy joint venture that makes batteries for petrol-hybrids.

Car-makers have shied away from manufacturing batteries for electric cars in the past, chiefly because of the huge investment  and keeping pace with the technology.

Neither Panasonic nor Toyota have announced how much money they plan to funnel into the new enterprise.

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