Japan’s battery giant Panasonic held an opening ceremony for its new automotive lithium-ion battery factory in Dalian, China last week.
The factory is Panasonic’s first automotive battery cell production facility in China and owned by Panasonic Automotive Energy Dalian Co., Ltd., an automotive battery joint venture established between Panasonic and Dalian Levear Electric Co., Ltd. in February 2016.
Panasonic will develop the new factory into a core manufacturing site in China, which is expected to launch production by the end of March 2018.
To response the demand of high-performance automotive lithium-ion batteries, Panasonic has increased production at Japanese sites but will also start automotive battery cell production in the United States this year.
Back in 2014, BBB reported how Panasonic was set to invest up to ¥30 billion ($294.7 million) in the Tesla’s Gigafactory — the US vehicle and energy storage makers $5 billion battery plant in Nevada.
As the increasing market growth of eco-friendly vehicles, Panasonic has provided Prismatic lithium-ion batteries to a number of auto manufacturers in the fields of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and pure electric vehicles.
The firm claims it ambition of achieving 2 trillion yen ($18 billion) in sales for the overall automotive business, including infotainment systems and industrial devices, in the fiscal year 2019 (ending March 31, 2019) which marks the 100th anniversary of the company’s beginnings.