Japan once led the world in power batteries, but has gradually fallen behind China and South Korea in recent years. Panasonic, once the world's number one power battery manufacturer, has now been replaced by China's CATL and overtaken by BYD, LG Energy Solution, SK On and others.
According to SNE Research data, the global installed capacity of power batteries in the first half of 2024 will be about 364.6GWh. The top ten companies are CATL, BYD, LG New Energy, SK On, Sinovation, Samsung SDI, Panasonic, Guoxuan High-tech, EVE Energy and Xinwanda. Among them, Chinese power battery companies occupy six seats and Korean companies occupy three seats. Japan only has Panasonic, with an installed capacity of 16.2GWh, a year-on-year decrease of 25.1%. The ranking has dropped to seventh place, and the market share has dropped to 4.4%.
In order to catch up with Chinese and Korean companies, according to foreign media reports, Toyota, Nissan and other Japanese automotive industry chain companies will expand their domestic power battery production capacity with the support of the government, and plan to invest about 1 trillion yen (about 50 billion yuan) to expand Japan's domestic battery production capacity by 50% to 1.5 times the current level by 2028, that is, from 80GWh/year to 120GWh/year. According to the plan of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, its domestic battery production capacity will be increased to 150GWh by 2030.
"The Japanese government will provide up to 350 billion yen (about 17 billion yuan) in subsidy support for 12 battery or battery parts, materials or production equipment projects," said Takeshi Saito, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, adding that he hopes the efforts will strengthen Japan's battery supply chain and competitiveness in the battery industry.
01
Increasing production capacity
It is understood that Toyota plans to invest a total of 245 billion yen (about 12 billion yuan) to increase its domestic battery production capacity to 9GWh, mainly by increasing the production capacity of its two battery subsidiaries in joint ventures with Panasonic. Among them, Toyota will build a new battery factory for electric vehicles in Fukuoka Prefecture, which is scheduled to start production in 2028 and will be used to support the nearby Lexus automobile assembly plant. In addition, Toyota will also build a battery factory in Hyogo Prefecture.
Also in Fukuoka Prefecture, Nissan plans to invest 150 billion yen (about 7.3 billion yuan) to build a car battery factory with a planned production capacity of 5GWh. It is worth noting that this time Nissan has targeted the lower-cost lithium iron phosphate battery. It is reported that the factory is scheduled to start production in the summer of 2028, mainly for supporting micro electric vehicles.
As Japan's largest battery manufacturer, Panasonic Energy will jointly invest about 550 billion yen (about 27 billion yuan) with Subaru and Mazda to build the next-generation cylindrical battery factory in Gunma Prefecture and Osaka Prefecture north of Tokyo. From 2027, Panasonic Energy will produce this type of battery for Subaru and Mazda. According to the plan, the annual production capacity of the Gunma plant will reach 16GWh by 2030, and the annual production capacity of the Osaka plant will reach 4GWh.
In addition, Japanese battery company GS Yuasa plans to increase its battery production for Mitsubishi Motors by about 30% in fiscal 2024. It is reported that GS Yuasa will invest billions of yen in its plant in Shiga Prefecture, which will produce batteries for Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross plug-in hybrid vehicles and Minicab electric vehicles.
In terms of battery materials, in September this year, chemical product manufacturer Nippon Catalyst announced that it would build a new electrolyte plant in Fukuoka Prefecture, with the goal of commercializing lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI) by 2028. The company expects to invest 37.5 billion yen (about 1.8 billion yuan) in the construction of the plant, with an estimated annual production capacity of 3,000 tons. If all of the above lithium salt products are used as electrolytes, it can meet the production needs of 21GWh batteries.
02
Want to achieve "overtaking" through solid-state batteries
On the one hand, Japan is vigorously expanding battery production capacity, and on the other hand, it is also promoting the commercialization of solid-state batteries with the whole country's strength, trying to achieve "overtaking on the curve". Previously, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan released a plan to tackle all-solid-state batteries. 23 automobile, battery and material companies such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Panasonic, as well as 15 academic institutions such as Kyoto University and the RIKEN Institute of Physical and Chemical Research will jointly participate in the research, aiming to fully master all-solid-state battery related technologies.
Last September, Toyota announced key progress in the research and development of solid-state batteries, and it is expected to start mass production in 2027 or 2028. In addition, Toyota also announced an agreement with Japanese energy giant Idemitsu Kosan to jointly develop mass production technology for solid electrolytes, aiming to ensure that vehicles equipped with all-solid-state batteries will be available in the market from 2027 to 2028, and to achieve full mass production thereafter.
It is understood that Nissan is building a new all-solid-state battery pilot production line at its Yokohama plant, which is expected to start production in March 2025, and plans to launch electric vehicles equipped with solid-state batteries in 2028. Nissan revealed that the all-solid-state battery it has developed will have a significant improvement in energy density, which can be increased to about twice that of traditional lithium batteries.
Honda plans to launch electric vehicles equipped with all-solid-state batteries in the second half of 2025. The company expects that as production scale expands and costs further decrease, solid-state batteries will gradually become popular in multiple Honda models in the next decade.
However, it is worth noting that it is not easy to achieve mass production of solid-state batteries as the next generation of technology. In March this year, Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, said in an interview with the media that the solid-state batteries for electric vehicles advocated by Japanese automakers and others are still several years away from commercialization. The technology is not perfect enough, lacks durability, and still has safety issues.
The "solid-solid interface" is one of the most difficult problems of solid-state batteries. According to industry insiders, due to the use of solid electrolytes, the ionic conductivity of solid-state batteries is low, resulting in slower battery charging and discharging speeds and faster capacity decay. Moreover, the solid-solid contact and stability are worse than those of liquids. To ensure close solid-solid contact, extremely high external pressure is required, but if the outer wall material is pressurized, the overall weight of the battery will increase dramatically.
In fact, "the chemical composition and physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of the positive electrode, electrolyte, and negative electrode of all-solid-state batteries still need to be improved, and the compatibility between materials and interface stability still need to be improved." Sun Xueliang, a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that the overall safety management strategy of solid-state batteries and the engineering preparation technology are not yet mature, and these are difficulties that need to be overcome.
So far, many Chinese and Korean car companies and battery manufacturers are also vigorously deploying solid-state batteries. China has already installed semi-solid-state batteries in vehicles and is also making continuous breakthroughs in all-solid-state batteries. It is not easy for Japanese manufacturers to achieve a "turnaround" through solid-state batteries.
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