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Venture","chasing-the-pack-panasonic-toyota-confirm-battery-joint-venture","article/chasing-the-pack-panasonic-toyota-confirm-battery-joint-venture",{"_uid":547,"date":548,"tags":549,"editor":550,"content":560,"excerpt":658,"featured":50,"reporter":659,"_editable":663,"component":664,"seo_title":543,"categories":665,"visibility":672,"author_company":49,"featured_image":673,"seo_description":658,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":678,"formattedArticleDate":679},"a8b23fda-4e86-4cdf-a08c-a86ac9983043","2020-02-06 00:00",[],[551],{"slug":552,"name":553,"content":554},"didi-bostock","Didi Bostock",{"job_title":555,"image":556,"bio":558,"linkedin":559},"Editor - Energy Transition & Economics",{"filename":557},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/2c5ca5c1a3/didi-bostock.jpeg","Didi is the Energy Transition & Economics Editor at Benchmark, covering a broad range of markets across the energy transition. His remit spans from downstream sectors such as BESS and EVs, through to midstream such as new technologies and battery production, to upstream critical minerals mining. He also leads on financial analysis across these supply chains, alongside in-depth policy analysis.\n","https://www.linkedin.com/in/didi-bostock-656342198/",{"type":561,"content":562},"doc",[563,570,575,580,589,594,609,618,625,630,635,640,645],{"type":564,"attrs":565,"content":566},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[567],{"text":568,"type":569},"Panasonic and Toyota’s ongoing collaboration continues as the two companies have confirmed the establishment of a battery joint venture (JV), initially announced last year.","text",{"type":564,"attrs":571,"content":572},{"textAlign":49},[573],{"text":574,"type":569},"Having explored the feasibility of an automotive battery JV together since December 2017, the latest announcement has formally confirmed the deal. Toyota will have a 51% controlling share in the JV – Prime Planet Energy & Solutions Inc – with Panasonic taking the remaining 49%. Approximately 5,100 employees from both companies will be involved in the project, of which 2,400 are based in China.",{"type":564,"attrs":576,"content":577},{"textAlign":49},[578],{"text":579,"type":569},"The JV’s primary goal is the production of prismatic cells for use in electric vehicles (EV), but there is also scope for solid state and next-generation automotive battery development.",{"type":564,"attrs":581,"content":582},{"textAlign":49},[583,585,587],{"text":584,"type":569},"Mitsuhiro Mori, Principal Consultant – Asia, at ",{"text":586,"type":569},"Benchmark Minerals ",{"text":588,"type":569},"said of the deal: “With the majority share in this joint venture, the initiative sits with Toyota to operate the battery business, which will see resources and products allocated to Toyota’s electric vehicles. In the short-term at least, we can expect this to affect Panasonic’s other OEM customers negatively, such as Honda and Nissan.”",{"type":564,"attrs":590,"content":591},{"textAlign":49},[592],{"text":593,"type":569},"Having previously relied on Tesla for production at scale, the Toyota JV provides Panasonic opportunities to produce at high volumes elsewhere, while also giving Toyota a rapid route into an EV space where it has slipped behind competitors in the push towards fully-electric models.",{"type":564,"attrs":595,"content":596},{"textAlign":49},[597,599,607],{"text":598,"type":569},"Outside of its collaboration with Tesla at the Gigafactory 1, Panasonic currently has five battery megafactories which totalled 25 GWh of capacity in 2019. While Panasonic has made little ground in terms of GWh expansions in recent years, many of its competitors have forged ahead with battery megafactory plans. Panasonic is now dwarfed by China’s CATL and Korea’s LG Chem, which had 77 GWh and 66 GWh respectively of battery capacity in 2019 according to the latest ",{"text":600,"type":569,"marks":601},"Benchmark Minerals Lithium ion Battery Megafactory Assessment",[602],{"type":603,"attrs":604},"link",{"href":605,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":606},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/megafactories/","url",{"text":608,"type":569},".",{"type":564,"attrs":610,"content":611},{"textAlign":49},[612,614,616],{"text":613,"type":569},"As things stand, and with its competitors’ plans in the pipeline, Panasonic’s megafactories are trailing behind both today and through to the end of the 2020s given their current plans. In 2019, excluding the Gigafactory, not one of Panasonic’s battery megafactories was in the top ten in terms of capacity (the first Panasonic entry comes in at 11",{"text":615,"type":569},"th",{"text":617,"type":569},"place).",{"type":619,"attrs":620,"content":622},"heading",{"level":621,"textAlign":49},6,[623],{"text":624,"type":569},"Different cell formats, diverging approaches ",{"type":564,"attrs":626,"content":627},{"textAlign":49},[628],{"text":629,"type":569},"Discussing battery cell format within OEM supply chains, Mori said: “Panasonic has experience supplying two cell types for EVs, one being the large format prismatic cells which will be produced as part of the Toyota JV. The other is cylindrical cells which it had supplied to Tesla exclusively. However, their share of this supply chain is now changing as LG Chem has recently joined the Tesla supply chain, and CATL is also a candidate to provide Tesla cells for the Gigafactory 3.”",{"type":564,"attrs":631,"content":632},{"textAlign":49},[633],{"text":634,"type":569},"Working together with Tesla, Panasonic has played a defining role in creating the new battery megafactory model. Despite the successes in scaling up the production at Gigafactory 1, Panasonic only just announced its first quarterly profit from the operation on the back of increased production output from Tesla.",{"type":564,"attrs":636,"content":637},{"textAlign":49},[638],{"text":639,"type":569},"Recent developments from OEMs have seen diverging themes play out, as Mori noted: “We’ve seen two approaches to the battery supply chain emerging from OEMs’ perspectives. Some have attempted to incorporate battery technology production into their own group whereas others are relying on cell manufacturers.",{"type":564,"attrs":641,"content":642},{"textAlign":49},[643],{"text":644,"type":569},"“For instance, Tesla’s focus on capturing battery technologies is shown through its acquisition of Maxwell Technologies and Hibar Systems. Whereas Nissan sold AESC – its joint venture with NEC – to the Chinese Enivision Group in 2019, stating that it would concentrate its efforts on producing electric vehicles while sourcing its cells from Enivision,” he added.",{"type":564,"attrs":646,"content":647},{"textAlign":49},[648,650,656],{"text":649,"type":569},"This article uses data from January 2020’s Benchmark Minerals Lithium ion Battery Megafactory Assessment. Fill in ",{"text":651,"type":569,"marks":652},"this contact form",[653],{"type":603,"attrs":654},{"href":655,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":606},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/contact/",{"text":657,"type":569}," to arrange for us to send you a sample copy.","Panasonic and Toyota’s ongoing collaboration continues as the two companies have confirmed the establishment of a battery joint venture (JV), initially announced last year. Having explored the feasibility of an automotive battery JV together since December 2017, the latest announcement has formally confirmed the deal. Toyota will have a 51% controlling share in the JV […]",[660],{"slug":552,"name":553,"content":661},{"job_title":555,"image":662,"bio":558,"linkedin":559},{"filename":557},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"a8b23fda-4e86-4cdf-a08c-a86ac9983043\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[666,669],{"slug":667,"name":668},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":670,"name":671},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals","private",{"id":49,"alt":674,"name":674,"focus":674,"title":674,"source":674,"filename":675,"copyright":674,"fieldtype":676,"meta_data":677,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/1c2a027fba/bm-05-toyota0019-s-e1581000520857.jpg","asset",{"alt":674,"title":674,"source":674,"copyright":674},"Feb 06, 2020","6th February 2020",[],[],1781280295913]