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Tuesday January 23, 9:57 AMMitsubishi Heavy to make lithium ion car batteriesTOKYO, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. aims to start mass production of lithium ion batteriesfor cars in 2010, Japan's largest machinery maker said on Tuesday-- the latest firm to be lured by the new market's potential. The rechargeable batteries would be sold to automakers foruse in electric and gas-electric hybrid vehicles. But safety concerns such as overheating remain and thetechnology is still considered too expensive. Mitsubishi Heavy hopes to build on expertise gained fromdeveloping large lithium ion batteries for household power unitswith Kyushu Electric Power Inc . Japanese companies foraying into the new market includeNissan Motor Co. and electronics group NEC Corp., which are considering a joint venture. NEC estimatesthat the lithium ion battery market for hybrid cars will growaround 300 billion yen by 2015. Sanyo Electric Co Ltd. , which supplies nickel metalhydride batteries to Honda Motor Co. Ltd. and Ford MotorCo. , is also developing the technology, as are electronicsconglomerate Hitachi Ltd. , car battery maker GS YuasaCorp and electronic parts maker Murata Manufacturing Co.Ltd. . Foreign makers include Johnson Controls Inc. andCobasys, a venture of Chevron Corp and Energy ConversionDevices , both of which recently won contracts to developnext-generation lithium ion batteries for General Motors Corp's new Saturn Vue hybrid. |
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