Toyota and Panasonic annoucnes "future possible alliance" over EV batteries

[hiroshiy]

トヨタとパナソニック、ＥＶ電池で協業検討を発表 <= Japanese
Toyota, Panasonic consider joint development of EV batteries <= English

English version and Japanese version look slightly different. In Japanese version it is stated that the "possible alliance" expects to develop a "standard" EV battery (could be battery module) that can be used across wide variety of electric vehicles. Panasonic also suggests that this future battery could be pouch, though he didn't specifically state that. He admitted that the current cylindrical format is superior for EV application, but future could be different.

Toyota also stated the percentage of each vehicle type in 2030:
Traditional gas: 50%, 5.5M cars
HV+PHEV: 41%, 4.5M cars
EV+FCV (a.k.a. EV only): 9%, 1M cars

1 million EVs per year in 2030 will require two gigafactories for them.

I think generally a good news for Tesla and EV industry.

 

[Veritas1980]

It may in time be a good thing, but it still contains the two most negative words when it comes to EV proliferation.

"Possible" and "Future".

 

[miimura]

Ah Toyota... It's late 2017 and you can't even announce a battery partnership, instead you announce the possibility of a battery partnership. I recently heard this - "You can tell which automakers are serious about starting to produce EVs because they are securing battery production capacity". This is very true and it speaks to where Toyota is in their product planning.

 

[Lloyd]

Toyota Enters agreement with Panasonic for batteries to produce 10 new BEV's by 2020

Toyota planning 10 purely electric vehicles by 2020s

 

[hiroshiy]

I think it is by mid 2020, possibly 2025.
トヨタ自動車、2030年に電動車の販売550万台以上、EV・FCVは100万台以上を目指す | CORPORATE | トヨタグローバルニュースルーム (original)

 

[deonb]

Toyota Enters agreement with Panasonic for batteries to produce 10 new BEV's by 2020

Toyota planning 10 purely electric vehicles by 2020s

A whole 10, hey? Mmm...

Well I guess you need to start somewhere!

 

[hiroshiy]

A Toyota exec, in an interview, said that they *barely* produce 1.5M lithium ion battery packs for hybrids per year, 1M EVs in 2030 would be a big challenge.

1.5M 0.7kWh packs = 1.05GWh
1M 50kWh Model 3 packs = 50GWh
So basically they said they will produce 50x batteries without committing to factories (yet).

 

[EV_enthu_jp]

Toyota plans a huge investment for the battery production.

Toyota planning 10 purely electric vehicles by 2020s

The company said it will invest 1.5 trillion yen ($13 billion) to realize its 2030 goal, more than half of it on making batteries.

 

[hiroshiy]

Yeah, it seems, however I'm not 100% sure about what would be included in that $13B. More than half of it goes to battery production, but Toyota plans to invest in solid state batteries as well.

Today it seems Toyota is seeking to form a joint venture with Panasonic to manufacture EV batteries.