Toyota building its own Li-Ion battery factory for plug-in hybrids

[HoosierRon]

GM, meanwhile, will remain subject to the whims of the marketplace...

Report: Toyota and Matsu****a Building Two Battery Plants

The Nikkei reports that Toyota Motor Corp. and Matsu****a Electric Industrial Co. intend to build two plants for automotive batteries: one for NiMH cells, the other for Li-ion cells.

The companies seek to lift annual production of such batteries to around 1 million units by 2011. Panasonic EV Energy Co., a joint venture between Toyota and Matsu****a, will build the plants.
...
A lithium ion battery plant is also to be built at an existing facility in Kosai, Shizuoka Prefecture. Production will kick off by 2010, starting at tens of thousands of units a year.

So in the same year GM launches the Volt, Toyota will own a factory that will be producing tens of thousands of li-ion batteries.

[WishIhadatruck]

So is the US (GM and its suppliers, Ford, etc.) building a battery plant or are we just going to farm out the production to the Chinese? I read a while ago that the US has the Li-Ion technology but we don't have the production capabilities. True? Or just an excuse to build them cheaper in China? It makes me nervous to have the Chinese building so much of our stuff. Long term we need to maintain our manufacturing base for many reasons.

[K-1]

Keiretsus are nice, aren't they?

[AMERICA 123]

Originally Posted by K-1

Keiretsus are nice, aren't they?

The new and improved Zaibutsus ( Mk.4A2E3 model ) for 2009 and beyond also appear robustly built and equally appealing.

Sometimes 'organization' is everything isn't it.

[jkennedy293]

Hasn't Toyota stated numerous times that Li-Ion batteries are extremely dangerous. Gotta love the hypocrisy.

[Beau]

^+1
hehe..

[dratnol]

Originally Posted by jkennedy293

Hasn't Toyota stated numerous times that Li-Ion batteries are extremely dangerous. Gotta love the hypocrisy.

That is what I was thinking of when I read this.

I do think that GM and Ford need to shore up a reliable source of li-ion batteries and not have to depend on manufacturers that might favor other companies (toyota, honda, etc).

[HoosierRon]

Originally Posted by Beau

^+1
hehe..

You won't be laughing when world demand for li-ion batteries causes the price of Chinese made batteries to skyrocket. Meanwhile, because Toyota will be making its own, it will be insulated from the price increase. This will give Toyota a price advantage of several hundred dollars per car.

[ronald mcretard]

Originally Posted by HoosierRon

You won't be laughing when world demand for li-ion batteries causes the price of Chinese made batteries to skyrocket. Meanwhile, because Toyota will be making its own, it will be insulated from the price increase. This will give Toyota a price advantage of several hundred dollars per car.

yeah, nail on the head. looks like its a good time to invest in lithium by the way.

[ogg vorbis]

hmmm...toyota didn't want to buy batteries, they wanted to make them and sell them. i'm sure li-ion/po is patented tech, so matsu/panasonic own it, toyota will still license it.

either way, plug-in hybrids and full ev are coming soon the consumer wins. lower cost, higher reliability, higher volume...now they need to standardize charging parts/processes.

and increased supply will lower price, not the opposite. it looks like toyota/matsu are building enough for everyone witholding supply to artificially inflate price, or gouging other manufacturers (while pandering to toyota) is another thing altogether.

[logansowner]

Originally Posted by jkennedy293

Hasn't Toyota stated numerous times that Li-Ion batteries are extremely dangerous. Gotta love the hypocrisy.

Same way GM said hybrids were useless and wouldn't sell.

Thing is, Toyota keeps things under wrap until closer to launch than GM does. GM has a tendency to brag about what they can do in 5 years, for instance the Camaro that we've known about for ever, yet still don't have.

If anyone thought Toyota wouldn't have Volt competitor they were living under a rock. Firstly, all major companies tend to get competitive technology at the same pace, usually if someone discovers something major, everyone else knows about it at roughly the same time.

Toyota will have Volt competitor out around the same time as GM, and they've likely been working on it for as long as GM has, only difference is they don't tell the world the day after they get the idea.

[AMERICA 123]

Originally Posted by HoosierRon

GM, meanwhile, will remain subject to the whims of the marketplace...

Report: Toyota and Matsu****a Building Two Battery Plants

The number of plants involved in this expansion is < being reported by some as > three.

Haven't checked - think its two new and one (large) expansion..

http://www.egmcartech.com/2008/05/23...lants-by-2011/

Toyota to build 3 hybrid battery plants by 2011


Posted on: May 23rd, 2008

To meet demand for hybrid vehicles, Toyota is planning not one, not two, but three hybrid battery factories, one of which will produce the next-generation lithium-ion battery packs.

According to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper, Toyota will spend around 70 billion ¥ ($673.1 million) on the plants with a goal to produce an annual battery output of 1 million units by 2011.

The current nickel-metal hybrid factory in Shizuoka will be expanded to accommodate some of the output.

Toyota is aiming to increase its worldwide sales of hybrids to 1 million units a year by early 2010. The industry together sold 429,000 hybrids in 2007.

Guess Nissan and Honda’s recent plans to beef up their hybrid game got Toyota shaking a little.

Then again, maybe its one and an expansion - just for Ni.

http://www.kansascity.com/438/v-print/story/632566.html

Posted on Fri, May. 23, 2008
Toyota building $192M green-car battery plant

By YURI KAGEYAMA
AP Business Writer Toyota is building a $192 million plant in Japan to produce batteries for gas-electric hybrid vehicles, as it seeks to keep its lead in an intensifying race for green cars among the world's automakers.

Toyota's joint venture with Matsu****a Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, is building the plant in Shizuoka prefecture, in central Japan, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said Friday.

He declined to give more details.

The plant will produce nickel-metal hydride batteries, now in the company's hit Prius hybrid.

The Nikkei, Japan's top business daily, reported Friday that Toyota was building another plant in Japan to make lithium-ion batteries, set to be running by 2010, for future ecological cars.

Nolasco said no decision has been made on such a plant.

[zete]

It's immaterial how many factories you have if you can't get the raw materials. The raw materials will be key, and if there's a sudden surge in the cost of that everyone who uses Li-Ion is going to be affected, factory or no.

[HoosierRon]

Originally Posted by zete

It's immaterial how many factories you have if you can't get the raw materials. The raw materials will be key, and if there's a sudden surge in the cost of that everyone who uses Li-Ion is going to be affected, factory or no.

Unlike the Chinese factories making batteries for the rest of the world, Toyota's battery factories will not need to make a profit (and, thus, will never pay any taxes). Plus, the Toyota factories have a guaranteed customer. These circumstances will allow the Toyota batteries factories to outbid the competition for raw material.

Of course, that's assuming they will need to bid at all. If I had the kind of cash that Toyota has, I would be purchasing the development rights to lithium mines as we speak.

[PhishPhood]

Originally Posted by jkennedy293

Hasn't Toyota stated numerous times that Li-Ion batteries are extremely dangerous. Gotta love the hypocrisy.

No I think that they said that they were unproven and not reliable enough yet to put into next year's vehicles. No news here, every maker is saying the same thing. That's a big difference. I don't think any maker is ready to offer a 10 yr 150,000 mi warranty on a Li-Ion battery as they do on a NiMH battery.

If they are going to invest in this plant then I'm reading two things. They've found a solution to the dependability and reliability issues and/or they want to take over and do it themselves...maybe both.