Toyota Plans Answer to Honda Insight, Will Supply Lithium Ion Batteries In House
With the demand for small, affordable hybrid vehicles on the rise, Toyota recently announced it’s plans to develop a small gasoline-electric car similar to their highly popular Yaris. This move by Toyota comes as the Honda Insight follows up it’s success in Japan with a move into the United States. “We are developing a low-priced hybrid vehicle like Honda’s Insight. We are going to compete by expanding our hybrid-vehicle lineup to smaller hybrids, in the class of the Vitz and Yaris,” Akihiko Otsuka, chief engineer of the third-generation Toyota Prius. With Toyota moving in this direction, it will undoubtedly bring about a greater need for lithium-ion battery manufacturing, something that Otsuka says Toyota is planning to do mostly in house. To this point, electronics giant Panasonic has been the main supplier of nickel-metal hydride batteries, which are what is used in the Prius. However, with the trend in the auto industry moving heavily toward lithium-ion, Otsuka stated that Toyota didn’t want to become over-reliant on Panasonic for the production of battery packs.
Honda has been teamed up with Japanese battery maker GS Yuasa Corp for their supply of lithium-ion battery packs, while the Insight is being powered with nickel-metal hydride batteries that are produced by Sanyo.
Category: Battery News
