Toyota Deepens Panasonic Battery Ties in Rush for Electric Cars

Toyota deepened a partnership with battery producer Panasonic as Asia’s biggest carmaker, which initially bet big on hydrogen for clean technology, accelerates efforts to make its presence felt in electric cars, according to Bloomberg.

The largest supplier of electric-car batteries and Toyota together are exploring the development of prismatic cells, and the collaboration will include solid-state batteries, the two companies said at a news conference in Tokyo. The agreement builds on a joint venture Toyota and Panasonic have had for over two decades.

As global rivals from Volkswagen to General Motors spend billions of dollars to shape the future of electric cars, Toyota is on a mission to make up for the delay. President  Akio Toyoda, the 61-year-old grandson of founder Kiichiro Toyoda, has acknowledged that Toyota has been a “a little bit late“ on EVs, with governments around the world cracking down on pollution caused by fossil fuels. The carmaker is open to other companies joining the partnership to speed the pace of development, he said.

Toyota has been playing catch-up to develop electric cars amid a boom this year, after initially betting on hydrogen to power the zero-emission vehicles. The company launched a venture with Mazda and affiliate-supplier Denso in September for EV parts across a spectrum of models. Toyota plans to introduce electric models by 2020 in China and India, where its partnering with Suzuki.

While Nissan has sold some 300,000 of the all-electric Leaf since 2010 and Tesla has delivered more than 250,000 EVs since the first Roadster rolled out in 2008, neither Toyota, Mazda nor Suzuki offer battery-powered passenger cars. Toyota aims to have an electric component in 50 percent of all its vehicle sales by 2030, including hybrid cars. The company wants to increase hybrid sales to 4.5 million by 2030.