[Micele]

Toyota, meestal de grootste autoconstructeur, zeker altijd al de allergrootste betreft hybride-wagens, gaat langjarig samenwerken met Panasonic betreft batterijen voor hun E-wagens. Tesla doet dat al.

Panasonic is de grootste producent van E-auto-batterijen, dit met grote voorsprong.

De Panasonic-cellen voor Tesla zullen dan toch bij de beste zijn? (prijs-kwaliteit)

https://electrek.co/2017/12/13/toyot...tric-car-push/

Toyota courts Tesla’s battery partner Panasonic ahead of electric car push

Fred Lambert
- Dec. 13th 2017

Panasonic has risen to the top position as a battery cell supplier for the auto industry through its partnership with Tesla, which has become the largest battery consumer in the world.

Now Toyota is courting the company for a battery partnership as the major Japanese automaker is playing catch up in the EV space.

The two Japanese companies announced today a deal to “begin studying the feasibility of a joint automotive prismatic battery business.”

They described the agreement in a press release today:

“This agreement between the two companies aims to help find solutions to pressing societal issues such as global warming, air pollution, the depletion of natural resources and energy security. Furthermore, this agreement is intended to address growing demand and expectations for electrified vehicles. In order to realize these objectives, Toyota and Panasonic target further advancements in automotive batteries, which are crucial technologies in electrified vehicles.”

Toyota has been entrenched in the development of hydrogen fuel cell powertrains and never focused on battery-electric vehicles.

Until recently, their biggest effort in the space was a partnership and investment in Tesla that led to the California-based automaker developing the all-electric powertrain for the Toyota Rav4 EV, which has since been discontinued as the Japanese automaker sold all its Tesla shares.

Now, Toyota plans to build its first all-electric vehicle from the ground up and it is expected to come to market in 2020 – making the company late to market compared to the rest of the industry.

Electrek’s Take

This is an important news because we can tell which automaker is most serious about the mass production of electric vehicles by looking at which ones are seriously working to secure battery supply.

Tesla was an early player in this game with its partnership with Panasonic and later its Gigafactory plan. Since then, other companies, like Daimler and Volkswagen have also launched important efforts to secure strong battery supply chains.

Now it looks like Toyota is going to add itself to the list.

Interestingly, they are exploring a partnership for “prismatic” battery cells. Panasonic’s main automotive battery products have been cylindrical cells since Tesla pioneered the use of those cells in electric vehicles. We have since seen several startups launching EVs with the same concept of using thousands of smaller cylindrical cells in battery packs, but established automakers have mostly been reluctant to use the technology and instead focus on fewer but bigger prismatic cells.

Panasonic investeert regelmatig "miljarden" in batterijfabrieken, in april nog eentje geopend in China:

https://electrek.co/2017/10/25/panas...tories-report/

Panasonic plans to increase battery production at Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 and other plants, says report
- Oct. 25th 2017
...
Panasonic already has 5 factories producing li-ion batteries in Japan with their biggest program being battery cells for Tesla’s Model S and Model X. The company also manufactures battery cells at Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada for the Model 3 program and Tesla’s stationary energy storage products.

At the Gigafactory 1 alone, they were aiming for a record 35 GWh of battery cell capacity in 2018 and that could go up to 105 GWh of annual capacity by 2020, according to Tesla.

The Japanese firm also added a battery factory in China earlier this year to support local demand. This plant is getting a second production line, according to the report. https://electrek.co/2017/04/27/panas...factory-china/

They quoted a senior Panasonic executive:

“There have been a lot of battery production requests from automakers, but we’ll only do what’s profitable. We’ll also wait to see how orders look before building new production lines.”

Panasonic invested a lot in its battery production at the Tesla Gigafactory 1. They are currently losing money, but they expect to quickly turn to profit.

Earlier this year, Hirokazu Umeda, Panasonic’s Chief Financial Officer, said about the production at Gigafactory 1:

“For battery cells for the Model 3, costs outweighed profit in the first quarter. As production accelerates towards next year, we expect the business to contribute profit.”

Thanks to its partnership with Tesla, which is the biggest battery consumer on the planet, Panasonic keeps beating records in automotive battery supply.

But competition is increasing from the likes of LG Chem, Samsung SDI, and new giants emerging from China. (...)

In elk geval lijkt het erop dat Toyota nu hun fuelcell-wagens toch tenminste uitstelt, of op een zeer laag pitje zet, of wie weet helemaal aan de kant gaat schuiven, een maand geleden... :

https://electrek.co/2016/11/07/toyot...cells-failing/

Toyota is planning long-range battery-powered electric cars for 2020 as its hydrogen fuel cells cars are failing

- Nov. 7th 2016

As we reported earlier this year, the few automakers still entrenched in hydrogen fuel cell technology were starting to show signs of succumbing to physics and turning to battery-powered electric cars in order to comply with stricter zero-emission regulations.

Now one of the most prominent proponents of hydrogen fuel cell cars, Toyota, is reportedly planning to mass produce battery-powered long-range electric cars by 2020.

The news comes as Toyota is having difficulties selling the Mirai, its hydrogen cars, in the US. Despite cutting the price on several occasions, with now a lease at only $350 (down from $500) in California, the Japanese automaker can’t find a market for the vehicle and only delivered 782 units since it started deliveries last year – and that’s including the state buying dozens of them for their own fleets to justify the millions of dollars spent on refuelling infrastructure.

Several industry watchers predicted that Toyota would eventually turn to batteries in its effort to deliver zero-emission vehicles – it was more a question of when they would make the transition. Now a new report this morning coming from Japan’s Nikkei (via Reuters) claims that Toyota is planning to invest in a team in early 2017 to develop an electric car with a range of “more than 300 km (186 miles) on a single charge” and ready to hit the market by 2020.