Sanyo to crank up hybrid battery production capacity by 75%
Sanyo is one of the biggest suppliers of nickel metal hydride batteries for hybrid vehicles, along with Panasonic EV energy. Currently, Sanyo's primary customers are Honda and Ford, but the company also has deals with Volkswagen and Audi for future products from Germany. Ford's ability to sell hybrid vehicles has, in part, been constrained by limited supplies of major components like transmissions and batteries. That situation may soon change, since Sanyo has decided to increase its production of NiMH cells by 75 percent.
Sanyo currently builds two million NiMH cells a month and had been planning to increase that to 2.5 million. Instead, Sanyo has decided to ramp that number up to 3.5 million cells per month. Some of those will undoubtedly go to Honda as it expands hybrid production with the new CR-Z coupe and the hybrid Fit. The deals with VW and Audi are believed to be for new lithium ion batteries. It's not known how many additional units Ford might get.
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mehdi Cheddadi 11:35AM (6/27/2009)
"Sanyo to crank up hybrid battery capacity by 75%"
"Sanyo has decided to increase its production of NiMH cells by 75 percent."
so which one is it? misleading title much?
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shlompsen 1:27PM (6/27/2009)
I'm with you. I thought it meant they had improved the technology to offer 75% more energy from the batteries.
Chris M 7:23PM (6/27/2009)
I think they left out a word. It should have read "Sanyo to crank up hybrid battery production capacity by 75%"
locoyocal 3:31PM (6/27/2009)
hybrid fit?
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Sam Abuelsamid 4:11PM (6/27/2009)
Currently only planned for the Japanese domestic market
Snoopy 11:51PM (6/27/2009)
If the Prius vs. Insight video you guys posted is any indication, the only way this is going to help is if Honda decides to get bigger batteries so the Insight, and future hybrid models, can run on battery only without requiring the engine to start it up.
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olhat 3:24AM (6/28/2009)
To me it sounds almost like negative news since I've been under the notion that year-on-year increase in battery companies production capacity being below 50 % is news.;-)
This shouldn't be news, this ought to be the natural state of battery production increases in this business for every company.
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NeilBlanchard 1:38PM (6/28/2009)
Hi,
If the title is referring to the number of cells they will be producing, then it should be a *25%* increase?
Neil
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