On March 13 2018 Panasonic announced it had shipped the first consignment of electric car batteries from its factory in China. It located its $400 million capital investment wisely. Because Dalian is on the Shandong Peninsula across the Yellow Sea from Korea. Moreover, the city is a major regional financial, shipping and logistics hub, suggesting huge sums invested wisely.
Huge Sums Invested to Supply Asia and North America
The Japanese electronics giant is banking on a steady demand for its high-capacity, and high-safety prismatic-type lithium batteries. Thus it evidently expects car manufacturers will prefer its rectangular-shaped products compared to Tesla’s cylindrical cells.
Panasonic scoped the factory to supply batteries for around 200,000 electric cars annually. However, we don’t yet know what the mix of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and all-electric vehicles will be. This is an important factor in terms of huge sums invested. Because one all-electric car battery equates to ten hybrid ones in terms of raw of materials and size.
Leading Car Makers Follow Suit in Germany
BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen have evidently noted the Court decision that German cities may ban most polluting diesel cars from their precincts. Together, they have huge sums invested in electric car development totaling $5.8 billion.
Moreover, we recall they may be planning their own electric car battery development in cooperation with technology partners. The current German car maker outreach dwarfs the US $335 and Japan’s paltry $17 million. Following on the Volkswagen diesel scandal, perhaps Germany has decided to make a break with motoring tradition?
Alternatively, perhaps they and Panasonic are ahead of the game, in realizing how electric cars may grow in the medium term. From where we sit, renewable naysayers are going to lag behind with developments. As a new generation of transport leaves them wondering why they did not have huge sums invested in the technology too.
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Preview Image: Electric Car in Amsterdam 2012
