Toyota, Panasonic collaborating on battery production

Toyota will team up with Panasonic to accelerate battery production, as the automotive giant attempts to set itself up for future electric vehicle demand.The new joint venture will come into force by the end of 2020 pending approval by the relevant authorities, with Toyota taking the dominant (51 per cent) stake in the partnership. It builds on a lithium-ion battery partnership forged in 2017.Both parties will contribute different things, naturally. Toyota is set to bring its know-how in the hybrid and electrified space, knowledge of solid-state batteries, and detail about its manufacturing processes to the table, while Panasonic offers scale and a



ready-made customer base.A total of 3500 people people will be transferred to the joint venture from both companies, with batteries to be produced at facilities in Japan and China. They'll be supplied to Toyota, but also sold to other manufacturers. *"Together with Panasonic, we want to hone our competitiveness in batteries, which represent one of the core technologies of electrified vehicles," said Toyota executive vice president, Shigeki Terashi."By contributing to the popularisation of Toyota's and other automakers' electrified vehicles, we want to help find solutions to issues such as global warming, environment-related challenges, and energy-related challenges."