TOKYO - Honda Motor Co., Japan's third-biggest auto maker, plans to build a 10 billion yen ($86 million) factory to produce solar batteries, the Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on Sunday.
Nikkei said Honda planned to build a plant in Kumamoto prefecture, on the southwestern island of Kyushu, to start mass-producing solar cells in 2007.
The Kumamoto plant would initially have a capacity to produce about 30 megawatts worth of solar cells annually, enough for 10,000 households a year, it said.
Honda officials were not immediately available for comment.
(US$1=116.35 Yen)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
