Friday, February 03, 2006

Volkswagen and Sanyo Team Up to Develop Hybrid Batteries

Text from Forbes
TOKYO (AFX) - Sanyo Electric Co Ltd said it has agreed with Volkswagen AG to jointly develop a next-generation battery system for hybrid cars.

'It is a step for our company to achieve our long-term goal of securing half the global market share of batteries for hybrid cars in 2010,' when the market will be worth an estimated 400 bln yen, said a spokesman for the Japanese manufacturer.

Sanyo already provides 20,000 batteries each to Ford Motor and Honda Motor annually for their hybrid cars. The agreement paves the way for the Japanese maker to provide batteries to a carmaker based in Europe, the spokesman said.

Details on timing and the number of shipments have not been decided yet, he said.