The chief of Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, the battery joint venture of Toyota and Panasonic, said the company plans to reduce to cost of electric car batteries by half starting in 2022.
Prime Plant president Hiroaki Koda told Bloomberg that the company’s aim is reduce cost further by 70% by 2025.
Koda said the company plans to catch up and surpass its rivals in China and South Korea, such as CATL and LG Energy Solution.
“The foundation necessary to raise our competitiveness above rivals’ has pretty much been established,” the president told Bloomberg.
Panasonic was focusing on procuring raw materials and increasing production efficiency for this advantage in cost competitiveness, Koda said.
According to the Prime Planet president, in the last fiscal year, the company produced hybrid and EV batteries for 1.4 million vehicles. It announced earlier this year that it iss adding new lines at plants in Japan and China. It also plans to start producing batteries for around 500,000 hybrid vehicles a year at a factory at Shikoku island in Japan in 2022, Koda said.
According to SNE Research, in May, LG Energy Solution held a market share of 28.7%, followed by CATL’s 24.5%. Panasonic was third place with 16.9%. BYD held fourth place with 7.1% and Samsung SDI was ranked fifth with 5.1%.
