Sanyo in Talks With Car Makers on Batteries

Sanyo Electric Co Ltd the world’s largest rechargeable battery maker, said on Friday it was in talks with major car makers in Europe, the United States and Japan on the supply of auto-use batteries.

Automotive batteries are expected to be a market with huge growth potential for suppliers of rechargeable batteries such as Sanyo as higher oil prices and growing concerns over climate change prompt car makers to expedite a shift to battery-driven vehicles.
Sanyo said it plans to boost its lithium-ion battery output capacity to above 100 million cells a month by the year ending in March 2011, up from a planned 90 million units in the year starting next April, to defend its No.1 position from Sony Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd.

“We are talking with more than five or six car makers,”on the co-development and supply of auto-use batteries, Sanyo Electric Senior Vice President Masato Ito told Reuters in an interview.

Planet Ark