Japan's Toyota Motor has agreed to partner with Chinese battery manufacturers CATL and BYD to ensure a stable supply of batteries to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles (EV).
Full details of the links with Chinese firms were not disclosed. But Toyota said it is important to ensure stable stocks and improve battery life while tweaking the technology to recycle used batteries.
Toyota plans to increase sales of electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cell EVs, and 100 percent electric vehicles, to 5.5 million units by 2025, rather than by 2030 as previously targeted. The 5.5 million target is about 50 percent of total vehicle sales per year, which reached 1.6 million EV in 2018, up 7 percent from 2017.
The company predicts Toyota's demand for batteries for electric vehicles will grow approximately 20 times by 2025 compared to 2018.
The company has also agreed with Japanese battery manufacturers Toshiba and GS Yuasa on cooperation in the field of rechargeable batteries, and, in addition, is cooperating with Japanese companies Panasonic and Primearth EV Energy.
Japan is increasing its imports of metals required for the production of electric vehicles. It imported 10,624 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent in January-April, up 64 percent from the same period in 2018, according to the Ministry of Finance. During the same period, the import of lithium hydroxide increased by 70.4 percent to 12,211 tons.
