Published

Panasonic Opens Lithium-Ion Battery Plant in China

Panasonic Corp. has opened a lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plant in Dalian, China—the company’s first such facility in the country.

Share

Panasonic Corp. has opened a lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plant in Dalian, China—the company’s first such facility in the country.

The 861,000-sq-ft facility is part of the Japanese supplier’s Panasonic Automotive Energy Dalian Co. joint venture with Dalian Levear Electric Co. About 500 people are expected to work at the plant.

Panasonic also is increasing production of lithium-ion batteries in Japan and is ramping up output with Tesla Inc. at their “gigafactory” plant near Reno, Nev., to meet growing global demand for hybrid and electric vehicles.

Last year Panasonic projected it would double its automobile battery sales to 400 billion yen ($4 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2019 compared with fiscal 2016 levels. The company is targeting sales of 2 trillion yen ($17.8 billion) overall for its automotive business for the same period, up from 1.3 trillion yen ($12 billion) in the fiscal year that began April 1.

RELATED CONTENT

  • We Can’t Unwatch this McLaren

    While we generally can’t say enough (which brings us close to saying much, much too much) about McLaren Automotive design and its exquisite use of materials, this week the company launched a product that is something we wish we didn’t see: That’s the RM 11-03 McLaren Automatic Flyback Chronograph, which the company debuted at the 88th Geneva International Motor Show.

  • On Fuel Cells, Battery Enclosures, and Lucid Air

    A skateboard for fuel cells, building a better battery enclosure, what ADAS does, a big engine for boats, the curious case of lean production, what drivers think, and why Lucid is remarkable

  • Ford Copies Nature

    As Nature (yes, capital N Nature) has done a pretty good job of designing things, it is somewhat surprising that Man (ditto) doesn’t follow Nature’s lead more often when it comes to designing objects.

Gardner Business Media - Strategic Business Solutions