By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario — January 22, 2019 —Panasonic will be teaming up with car manufacturer Toyota to create an electric vehicle battery cell venture in China and Japan, according to a report from Nikkei.
As a result, the two Japanese companies would start a joint-venture, resulting in Panasonic producing cells for Toyota. The OEM would join Tesla as Panasonic’s second cell partner.
“The venture, in which Toyota is to hold a 51 percent stake with Panasonic owning the rest, will be announced as soon as this week. Panasonic will shift five automotive battery production facilities in Japan and China to the new company; though the U.S. plant it operates under a partnership with American automaker Tesla will not be included.”
If the deal does go through, Panasonic would be shifting a significant part of its battery cell production to take care of Toyota’s electric vehicle programs.
The partnership would represent just one of Toyota’s moves towards improving fuel cell cars, since announcing the expansion of its electric car plans last year with 10 upcoming new BEVs.
According to Nikkei Toyota’s first BEV is set to launch next year and happens to fall in line with the opening date of the planned operation with Panasonic.
The reports also stated that the BEV launch will involve the production of next-generation battery cells, including solid-state batteries.
