The Japaneses Panasonic and Toyota are preparing to create a joint venture in batteries. The new entity, which will be owned 51% by the automaker and 49% by the industrial group, will also provide batteries to Toyota’s partners in electric vehicle technologies, namely Mazda and Subaru, says a source close to folder at Reuters.
The joint venture will be established from the agreement announced in late 2017 by Toyota and Panasonic, who announced the joint development of batteries with higher energy density. A spokesman for Toyota said the two companies have continued to work on their partnership announced more than a year ago, without saying more. Panasonic made a similar comment. According to the source, Toyota and Panasonic could announce this week their joint venture project.
On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Panasonic stock ended on a jump of 3.31%, posting one of the highest increases of a Nikkei 225 index which took 0.26%. Toyota shares finished on a 0.28% increase.
Panasonic less Tesla-dependent
Through a joint venture with Toyota, Panasonic will be able to reduce its dependence on Tesla Motors, the US manufacturer of high-end electric cars for which it is the exclusive supplier of batteries. On the one hand, Tesla’s production delays have repeatedly weighed on Panasonic’s results. On the other hand, the Japanese group is expected to lose its exclusive supplier status as the US group plans to source its new Shanghai plant from several companies.
The joint venture with Panasonic will help Toyota reach its annual sales target of around one million zero-emission electric vehicles and hydrogen powered cars by 2030.
As part of this joint venture, Panasonic will transfer most of its equipment related to prismatic batteries located at Japan and in China to the joint venture while retaining those used for batteries delivered to Tesla.
Panasonic already manufactures prismatic batteries for Toyota while providing cylindrical batteries to Tesla.
With Reuters (Makiko Yamazaki and Maki Shiraki, Benoit Van Overstraeten for the French service)