Japan’s GS Yuasa Corp, Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsubishi Motors Corp will build a plant to boost the production capacity of their automotive lithium ion battery joint venture 70 percent, the Nikkei business daily reported.
The new factory of the joint venture, Lithium Energy Japan, would be able to produce 4 million lithium ion battery cells a year — enough to power 50,000 electric vehicles, the paper said.
Construction on the 20-30 billion yen ($7.8 billion) plant, which will be built next to one of Lithium Energy Japan’s under-construction factories in Ritto, Shiga Prefecture, is slated to begin next spring, the business daily reported.
This second plant, which would start operations in 2014, would hike the joint venture’s total output capacity enough to equip 120,000 electric vehicles a year, the paper said.
The Lithium Energy Japan factory currently manufactures automotive lithium ion batteries at small factories in Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture, and the city of Kyoto, with combined output capacity for about 18,000 vehicles annually, the Nikkei said.
The overall figure is expected to reach 70,000 once construction on the plant begins in April, the paper said.
