Tokio-based Sanyo Electric, the world’s largest manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries, secured six contracts to supply car manufacturers with Li-ion batteries for hybrid and electrical vehicles, announced a company representative on Thursday.
Sanyo-made batteries are currently used mainly in consumer products such as laptops and mobile phones. The company may face serious challenges from South Korean competitors in their race to secure a considerable portion of the vehicle-use market.
The company will supply the six manufacturers, based on the aforementioned contracts, only with Li-ion batteries, but they also have separate commitments for hybrid nickel-metal cells with a few carmakers, according to Sanyo’s energy division chief, Mitsuru Homma.
Two of the receivers of Li-ion batteries are German manufacturer Volkswagen and Japanese Suzuki Motos. The Sanyo representative declined to disclose information about the other four clients. He did however explain that the Sanyo lithium-ion cells will be used by automaker clients in fully electric cars as well as hybrids. He also said he expects the market for fully-electric cars to be a small one, as appropriate infrastructure is yet to be developed.
South Korea-based competitor LG Chem signed deals with General Motors, Ford Motor, Hyundai Motor Co, Renault and Volvo.
Mitsuru Homma also said that possible synergies could happen in the company’s future research and development activities, especially since Panasonic Corp is on its way to buyout a Sanyo subsidiary in their bid to increase activities related to green technology.
Sanyo targets a market share of 30-40 percent in power cells for green cars by 2020, when the total market value would be at roughly 5 trillion yen, or some 60 billion dollars. Furthermore, Sanyo’s energy division chief believes that the whole Panasonic group would also grab a 1.5 trillion yen (18 billion dollars) worth of market share by then.
