Panasonic Corp. is receiving “strong responses” from automakers as it seeks new buyers for batteries to be used in electric cars, a company official said.
“Automakers are studying various batteries including their prices. That’s welcome to us, as we believe we can win,” Naoto Noguchi, president of Panasonic’s battery unit, said in an interview yesterday at the company’s headquarters in Osaka. “We’re getting strong responses,” he said, declining to say if the company has won new customers.
Panasonic, the world’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries, said last week it bought a $30 million stake in U.S. battery-car maker Tesla Motors Inc., tightening its supply relationship with the automaker. Panasonic aims to triple sales of lithium-ion cells to 1 trillion yen ($12 billion) in the year ending March 2016 from about 324 billion yen last fiscal year, Noguchi said in August.
Panasonic fell 0.2 percent to 1,195 yen as of 9:26 a.m. in Tokyo trading, extending its loss this year to 9.8 percent. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average has dropped 6.9 percent since January.
The Japanese electronics maker will produce lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles mainly at its new plant opened in Osaka earlier this year, Noguchi said. Panasonic plans to lower production costs and raise the capacity of the batteries, he said.
The new plant started manufacturing 10 million cells a month in April and may increase production to 25 million when demand rises, the company said in March.
Panasonic, which vaulted atop the rechargeable-battery industry with its purchase of Sanyo Electric Co., was in talks with about 20 automakers in the U.S., Europe, China, India and other markets to supply batteries, Noguchi said three months ago.
Panasonic and Tesla agreed in January to jointly develop next-generation lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. While Panasonic is Tesla’s “preferred” battery cell supplier, the agreement doesn’t prevent the U.S. company from also using cells from other makers, according to the carmaker.
The company said in January it would spend 300 billion yen over three years on energy-related products such as solar panels, fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries. The maker of Viera television sets is expecting higher revenue growth in batteries than its main TV operation for the years to 2012.
