It is reported by Japanese media that Japanese company Panasonic will invest 50 billion yens (about 412 million dollars) to build a lithium-ion battery plant in northeast DaLian, China, with one or more Chinese partners. This plant is expected to enter production in 2017 and will churn out rectangular-shaped batteries for EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs.

 

This new plant will be Panasonic’s very first dedicatedplant for EV batteries in China, but not its first battery plant here. The facility’s annual capacity is projected at the equivalent of around 200,000 EVs.

 

Currently, China is progressively promoting environment-friendly vehicles, including EVs, in a bid to tackle severe air pollution.

 

Foreign companies, including Panasonic, have clearly seen opportunities in this trend. Besides Panasonic, the world’s third biggest EV battery supplier LG Chem also owns a battery plant in Chinese city Nanjing.

 

To be noted, Panasonic and Tesla had already agreed to invest 5 billion dollars to set up a lithium-ion battery plant in US. The US-based plant will go online next year and is expected to produce enough batteries for half a million EVs by the year of 2020.