Japan's GS Yuasa Plans New Lithium Battery Plant on Expectation of EV Growth
By John O'Dell November 17, 2009
With governments at home and around the world vigorously pushing development and deployment of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, Japanese battery manufacturer GS Yuasa says it plans to build a new lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant to increase its output.
The company already is aligned with Mitsubishi in the Lithium Energy Japan joint venture to supply the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric city car and with Honda through the Blue Energy Co. joint venture for hybrid batteries.
It also has designs on becoming a global supplier to a variety of automakers, the Nikkei business news service reports.
The new plant is expected to cost about 50-billion yen ($559 million) and could supply companies such as PSA Peugeot Citron, which recently announced a pair of electric city cars - one for the Peugeot brand and one for Citroen - based on the i-MiEV (right).
GS Yuasa also has said it is talking EV and PHEV battery supply deals with automakers in the U.S.
The company has said it expects its lithium-ion battery sales to top $1 billion a year by 2016, up from around $34 million this year.
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