GS Yuasa and Mitsubishi Group Launch JV for Lithium Ion Battery

GS Yuasa Corporation announced on Wednesday the firm established a joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation to produce large-size lithium ion battery. The JV starts commercial production of lithium ion batteries with large capacity and high function to equip into electric vehicles. The production is scheduled to be 200,000 units per year in fiscal 2009 ending March 2010.GS Yuasa, Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsubishi Motors held detailed negotiations since May 2007 to establish a JV for lithium ion battery production. GS Yuasa has 51% shares in the JV, while Mitsubishi Corp 34% and Mitsubishi Motors 15%. The JV is headed inside GS Yuasa’s head office in Kyoto, Japan with about 60 employees as of starting commercial production.The capital is initially 500 million yen and scheduled to be increased to 4 billion yen in April 2008, a half of which will be applied to productive expansion. The JV’s plant will be constructed with total floor area of 7,000 square meters inside GS Yuasa’s Kyoto plant site. The plant will introduce automated production lines and start operation in January 2009.The JV will produce large-size lithium ion battery, “LEV50,” 100,000 units of which will be supplied to Mitsubishi Motors’ electric vehicle “iMiEV” and the rest 100,000 units for industrial applications such as power storage facilities. Mitsubishi Motors plans to start sales of iMiEV by 2010.