Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, the battery joint venture of Toyota and Panasonic Holdings, is searching for a new domestic manufacturing site with sea port and clean energy access as it expands to keep up with consumer demand for electric vehicles, President Hiroaki Koda said in an interview in Tokyo.
The company, which formally started operations in 2020, also plans to pare production costs by adopting Toyota’s so-called kaizen process of increasing productivity via tiny, continuous improvements as it takes on bigger battery-making rivals around the region.
Lowering costs and making sufficient electric car batteries is key for Prime Planet amid rising raw materials prices. While Toyota, the world’s No. 1 automaker, has vowed to offer the "widest possible” array of powertrains to propel cars in a greener fashion, it has still committed some ¥4 trillion ($28.6 billion) to electrify its product lineup.