Panasonic/Sanyo deal means cheaper Toyota hybrids?
Where does lithium fit in?Yesterday, Panasonic confirmed its acquisition plans for Sanyo, despite anti-trust worries regarding hybrid cars. As Panasonic and Sanyo are the two top dogs in the NiMH world of battery production, monopolistic concerns have dogged this deal for months.
However, to offset anti-trust issues, Panasonic is now going to pare back its partnership in Panasonic EV Energy from 40 percent to 20 percent, while Toyota will increase its share to 80 percent.
Minimally, it seems that will mean that Toyota will own even more of its battery solutions, while Panasonic will take on the NiMH production needs of other automakers, such as Honda, Ford and Peugeot, while scaling up plans for lithium production, including lithium batteries for Toyota's plug-in vehicles.
Will that affect the prices of Toyota's current hybrid cars? That sure seems a possibility.
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles
posted by Dahcredyns at
11:31 AM
1 Comments:
Indigo Incarnates
One could logically extrapolate that hybrid prices would decrease if they became less expensive to produce. But it all depends if the manufacturers pass the savings on to the consumer.
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