A joint venture between vehicle OEM and Toyota Motor Corporation and lithium-ion battery maker Panasonic will specialise in prismatic batteries for automotive applications.
The new company, called Prime Planet Energy & Solutions (PPES), is due to begin operation on 1 April this year from its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.
The new company— 51% owned by Toyota with Panasonic owning the remaining share— aims to development, manufacture, and commercialise high-capacity and high-output automotive prismatic lithium-ion batteries.
The joint venture is also planning to develop and manufacture automotive solid-state batteries as well as next-generation automotive batteries including “batteries based on new principles”.
The joint venture will supply batteries to Toyota as well as other customers.
The announcement on 3 February comes just over a year since the companies confirmed they had concluded a business integration and a joint-venture deal.
PPES’s director and president will be Toyota’s Hiroaki Koda, with five directors (three from Toyota and two from Panasonic including the president) and two auditors, one from each company.
Toyota announced plans on 6 January to build a prototype city of the future on a 175-acre site at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan.
Envisioned as a ‘living laboratory’ called the Woven City, it will be a fully connected ecosystem powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
Woven City will serve as a home to full-time residents and researchers who will be able to test and develop technologies such as autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment.
Read all about solid-state technology in the latest edition of BESTmag HERE
