Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday it plans to build a new plant in Niigata Prefecture to produce rechargeable lithium ion batteries from around autumn 2010.
Construction of the plant in Kashiwazaki will begin next autumn, the company said.
The electronics maker is expected to invest about ¥30 billion in the plant, sources said.
Although Toshiba has scaled down production in its core semiconductor business, the firm has decided to boost investment in the promising rechargeable battery business as demand for such products is expected to grow for use in electric vehicles and industrial machines, the sources said.
At the new plant, Toshiba plans to produce the SCiB, or the Super Charge ion Battery, which can recharge to 90 percent of full capacity in less than five minutes and has a life cycle of over 10 years.