A Sanyo Electric Co. executive in charge of the company's battery unit said its promising car battery business will remain largely independent from that of parent Panasonic Corp., since Panasonic's close ties to Toyota Motor Corp. may make it difficult for Sanyo to keep other auto makers as customers, due to competitive reasons.
In December, Panasonic spent about 400 billion yen, roughly $4.43 billion, to acquire a majority stake in Sanyo with an eye toward building a green energy business that incorporates the smaller electronics maker's car battery and solar panel units.
Panasonic holds slightly less than 20% of a battery joint venture with Toyota, called Panasonic EV Energy. Panasonic EV Energy doesn't sell its batteries to other car companies. But Sanyo has stood by its plan to sell to multiple auto makers, saying it's the easiest way to gain scale and establish a de-facto standard in a new industry.
Panasonic has yet to detail plans for how the two companies will reconcile divergent business strategies to supply lithium-ion batteries used in hybrid and electric vehicles.
"Panasonic thinks it is fine for Sanyo to stick to the current policy of selling batteries to all possible clients," said Executive Vice President Mitsuru Homma, who heads Sanyo's profitable battery business, speaking in an interview. "We won't risk losing our existing clients."
Sanyo, the world's largest maker of rechargeable batteries by market share, currently supplies nickel-metal hydride car batteries for current-generation of hybrid vehicles offered by auto makers such as Ford Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co.
Lithium-ion battery technology is expected to power the next-generation of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. Mr. Homma says the car lithium ion battery market is almost non-existent now but should grow to about 1 trillion yen in 2015 and double to 2 trillion yen in 2020.
