Hitachi Reportedly to Raise Lithium-Ion Battery Output for Hybrid Vehicles 70-Fold

Hitachi Ltd, Japan's biggest industrial electronics group, reportedly plans to boost production capacity for lithium-ion batteries for hybrid cars at an estimated cost of $200 million to $300 million, targeting a 70-fold increase by 2015.

Capacity will initially be raised more than 600 percent by next autumn, the Nikkei business daily reported today.

Hitachi has already received orders for lithium-ion batteries for 100,000 hybrid autos that General Motors plans to sell from next year, Nikkei said.

With an eye toward winning orders from domestic and other overseas carmakers, Hitachi will bolster capacity to meet the needs of 700,000 hybrids a year, the paper said.

Each hybrid vehicle is generally equipped with 30-50 lithium-ion batteries.

Hitachi will mass produce two new types of lithium-ion batteries for use in next-generation hybrid vehicles.

In addition to significant improvements in output density, the batteries are half the weight and size of conventional nickel-metal hydride ones, Nikkei said.

Production will be undertaken at subsidiary Hitachi Vehicle Energy Ltd's Tokai works in the Ibaraki Prefecture, the paper said.

JPMorgan Securities Japan Co. has estimated that the global market for hybrid-use batteries will exceed $6 billion in 2015. Hitachi is targeting sales of $1.04 billion that fiscal year, Nikkei said.

In 2000, Hitachi was the first to start volume production of high-capacity lithium-ion batteries for commercial vehicles. It has supplied batteries for a few thousand vehicles to automakers such as Isuzu Motors Ltd and Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp.

Posted by

Scott Doggett July 2, 2009, 11:51 AM

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