Japan First Li-ion Battery Plant Begins Operation

Lithium Energy Japan, which manufactures the large lithium-ion battery for electric vehicle, co-invested by GS Yuasa, Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors launched the operation of the plant in Shiga prefecture. This is the first Japanese lithium-ion battery plant for electric vehicle. The firm starts the commercial operation in this spring for the electric vehicle, which planed to release by Mitsubishi Motors in summer.

The firm has bought up 20,000 square meters of site for plant and has built the building on the land at 7,800 square meters in July 2008. The firm finished the setup of a production line by the end of the year. In fiscal year ending March 2010, the firm plans to produce the batteries at 200,000 ampere-hour cells per annum, which corresponds to the 2,000 vehicles. The battery has 50 ampere-hour of cell capacity. Manganese is used for the electrodes of the battery not cobalt.

The firm decided to increase the production capacity to a million ampere-hour of cell capacity early.

GS Yuasa produces the large lithium-ion battery for more than 10 years for space-related, air plane and industry uses.