GS Yuasa to Establish Productive JV for Auto Lithium Battery

GS Yuasa Corporation announced on Tuesday the firm started concrete negotiation with Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation to establish a joint venture to produce lithium ion batteries. The 3 firms aim to produce high-power and high-performance lithium ion batteries for electric vehicle (EV) and to establish a JV within a half year.The JV will be controlled by GS Yuasa with 51% share, Mitsubishi Corp 34% and Mitsubishi Motors 15%, and located in the head office of GS Yuasa in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The 3 parent companies will invest approximately 3 billion yen as a first step to establish a plant for lithium ion battery production. The plant will start operation by 2009 with automotive mass production lines on floor space of 7,000 square meters. The output capacity is scheduled at 200,000 battery units per year.GS Yuasa is the only Japanese company which has succeeded in commercial production of large-sized lithium ion battery called “LIM Series.” The JV will produce new batteries based on LIM Series but with higher energetic and output densities than LIM Series. The new lithium ion battery is expected to have 10 times higher power than existent battery for hybrid electric vehicles. The new battery will be applied into Mitsubishi Motors’ next generation EV “i MiEV” which will be marketed by 2010. The JV can also supply the new lithium ion battery for other automakers’ EV or industrial batteries to store electric power.