NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. is looking to procure lithium-ion batteries from Sanyo Electric Co. to widen the number of suppliers for its increasingly popular gas-electric hybrid vehicles, sources said Wednesday.
The quality of Sanyo's batteries is "high," a senior Toyota official said. Osaka-based Sanyo, which is scheduled to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Panasonic Corp., also supplies nickel metal hydride batteries for Honda Motor Co.'s Insight hybrid.
Toyota plans to install Sanyo's batteries, which are lighter and more powerful than the nickel metal hydride batteries currently used in the Prius and Toyota's other hybrids, in the minivan-type hybrid it is expected to launch in 2011. The company will likely procure enough supplies to make around 10,000 units per year, the sources said.
Toyota may also use them in plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles that can be charged using the household electricity grid.
Sanyo plans to produce the batteries at its new factory in Kasai, Hyogo Prefecture, which is scheduled to be completed next July, they added.
Toyota has a joint venture with Panasonic called Panasonic EV Energy Co. that produces rechargeable batteries for hybrids, but production is far behind booming orders for the redesigned Prius. If customers want to order the hybrid now, they will have to wait until after the government subsidy for energy-efficient cars expires at the end of March.