Nov 30 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Takanori Yamamoto The Yomiuri Shimbun


Smaller, lighter and with greater power-storage capacity than nickel hydride batteries--which have been a popular choice for hybrid vehicles--lithium-ion batteries are seen as key to improving the performance of eco-friendly vehicles. Demand for lithium-ion batteries is expected to grow quickly, prompting increased efforts among manufacturers, including those that have newly entered the market, to produce leading battery technology.

On Nov. 10, Hitachi Ltd. showed the press around its new lithium-ion battery plant at its Tokai complex in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Battery-making machines stand in rows inside the pristine factory, a conveyor belt transporting the 4-centimeter wide, 9-centimeter-tall cylindrical batteries through the sparsely populated space.

At the Tokai site, prototype batteries for hybrid vehicles being developed by General Motors Co. in the United States are currently being churned out. The company plans to start shipping the batteries in 2011.

In 2000, Hitachi became the first company in the world to mass-produce lithium-ion batteries for automobiles. Its batteries have been used for hybrid trucks manufactured by Isuzu Motors Ltd. and Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp.

"The size and capacity of our batteries are excellent," said Hidetaka Kawamoto, the president of Hitachi Vehicle Energy Ltd., a Hitachi group firm that manufactures lithium-ion batteries.

Hitachi has set a goal of selling 100 billion yen worth of vehicle batteries in fiscal 2015.

As measures against global warming are implemented across the globe, demand for eco-friendly vehicles is certain to rise.

According to an estimate by market research firm Fuji-Keizai, the global lithium-ion battery market for automobiles will expand from 25 billion yen in 2009 to 2.25 trillion yen in 2014. Lithium-ion batteries are already widely used in personal computers and other devices, but will increasingly be used in vehicles.

Other major electrical appliance companies have started heavily investing in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries.

Toshiba Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. are constructing new factories for the purpose. NEC Corp. is planning to use some of the funds raised through a capital increase to expand the company's component-production factories to prepare for mass production of lithium-ion batteries.

"We'll move quickly to build the [necessary] infrastructure for mass production [of lithium-ion batteries]," Takemitsu Kunio, an executive of the company, said.

Major battery manufacturer GS Yuasa Corp. is preparing to build a new factory in Shiga Prefecture, joining hands with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and other firms.

A number of companies also are entering the lithium-ion battery market. In August, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. announced it would start manufacturing lithium-ion batteries from 2010. IHI Corp., too, has said it will start selling lithium-ion batteries imported from the United States and will consider developing such batteries.

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