Sanyo Wins First Lithium-Ion Car Battery Customers

Big demand from makers of plug-in hybrid electric cars drives Sanyo's production startup. Sales may begin in 2011 to two unnamed automakers

Sanyo Electric, the world's biggest maker of rechargeable batteries, has won at least two customers for its lithium-ion batteries to fuel plug-in hybrid vehicles, an executive said.

The company will start supplying the batteries to automakers, including a Japanese and a foreign carmaker, as early as in the latter half of 2011, Mitsuru Honma, head of Sanyo's rechargeable-battery unit, said in an interview yesterday at the company's headquarters in Osaka, western Japan. Honma didn't identify the customers, but Toyota's name has been mentioned.

For further information: BusinessWeek