Honda Motor Co Ltd and GS Yuasa Corp reached a basic agreement on the establishment of their joint venture for the Li-ion secondary battery business Dec 17, 2008.
"We know that, under the current bleak circumstances, the key to survival is to further accelerate the development of advanced environmental technologies and offer them as attractive products to our customers," said Honda President Takeo Fukui at the press conference.
To diffuse hybrid cars, "the most suited solution" at the moment, it is important to evolve Li-ion secondary batteries, he said. And he explained why Honda is forming a new company with GS Yuasa, describing GS Yuasa as a company that has "high levels of Li-ion secondary battery technologies and expertise in battery materials and many other areas." He also emphasized the fact that GS Yuasa's Li-ion secondary battery is used in Honda's two-legged robot "ASIMO."
Major questions and answers were as follows.
Q: When and on what scale are you planning to manufacture a new Li-ion secondary battery? How much will the initial investment be? From which model are you considering introducing the new battery?
Also, there is a sense that Honda lags behind Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co Ltd, which have already established joint ventures, with Toyota establishing "Panasonic EV Energy Co Ltd" with Panasonic Corp and Nissan setting up "Automotive Energy Supply Corp" with NEC Corp. Will this be a handicap for Honda?
Fukui: Honda is planning to provide half the joint venture's capital of ¥15 billion (approx US$168 million). It's difficult to specify when and from which vehicle we are starting to use the new battery now, as our "Insight" (to be released in spring 2009) will employ a nickel-hydride secondary battery. However, we will strive to do that as soon as possible and I believe we will never fall behind our rivals.
Q: Since when have you been considering establishing the new company? Honda has been purchasing components from various companies so far. Are you going to change that strategy? Also, are you planning to apply the battery to fuel cell vehicles and other green cars?
Fukui: Honda has been discussing diverse plans over the past few years. Our relationship with GS Yuasa involved Li-ion secondary batteries several years ago. Our latest "ASIMO" uses GS Yuasa's Li-ion secondary battery as well. To go back even further, we developed normal batteries for motorcycles together. Our relationship has a long history.
I think we started discussing specific things about the joint venture about a year ago. We happened to make the announcement at this timing, but we were not expecting an economic turmoil like this. We would have announced the plan at about the same time even if it had not been for the economic fluctuation, I believe.
As for future prospects, we are first aiming to develop a battery exclusively targeted at Honda's "IMA (Integrated Motor Assist)" hybrid system in a short period of time. After that, we will discuss and determine the next steps with GS Yuasa.
By the way, Honda will continue to purchase nickel-hydride secondary batteries from Sanyo Electric Co Ltd and Panasonic.
Basically, the new company will aim to become the world's top manufacturer in terms of product competitiveness, of course. But Honda will remain to be a purchaser. We must make purchasing decisions by properly evaluating products in terms of Q (quality), C (cost) and D (delivery). It will be the best if Honda decides to employ all the components (Li-ion secondary batteries) that the new company produces as a result of this evaluation.
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