Honda Is Interested in Developing Electric-Car Batteries for China, Executive Says
By Scott Doggett May 25, 2010
A Honda executive said today that the Japanese automaker is interested developing electric-car batteries in China to tap the country's technology and vast resources, adding that a breakthrough was needed to bring the zero-emissions cars into the mainstream, according to Reuters.
"If there is a suitable chance, we hope to work with China to (develop) batteries," Honda CEO Takanobu Ito (pictured) told reporters in southern China, where he announced a plan to boost annual production capacity by a third to 480,000 batteries at a Chinese joint venture, Guangqi Honda.
Honda has been among the least enthusiastic among Japan's automakers towards electric cars, and runs the risk of falling further behind domestic rivals Toyota and Nissan, after the former tied up last week with Silicon Valley-based electric-carmaker Tesla Motors Inc.
"There needs to be a major breakthrough in battery technology," Ito said, predicting it would take 10 to 20 years before battery-run electric cars became mainstream. Japan's No. 2 automaker would instead focus on hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicles for the near term, he said.
Honda is considering bringing electric cars in limited numbers to the U.S., Europe and Japan, but unlike many rivals has no strategic partner with which it has committed to developing batteries for the vehicles.
Honda has a joint venture with Japan's GS Yuasa Corp to collaborate on lithium-ion batteries specifically for hybrid cars, and has said the two could work together on electric-car batteries too, if the need arose.
GS Yuasa already develops and produces electric-car batteries in a joint venture with Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
Having surpassed the U.S. as the world's biggest auto market last year, China has become an increasingly important battleground for global automakers, which are keenly awaiting Beijing's policy on the promotion of greener cars.
Volkswagen AG, China's top foreign brand, said last month Chinese consumers' reaction to its electric cars would determine the fate of its plans to lead the industry in battery-powered vehicles by 2018.
Electric cars may well get the boost they need from China. The Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday that the government was set to announce by the end of this month plans to subsidize buyers of pure electric vehicles by up to $8,787 each and only $440 for hybrid cars.
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