In the meantime everyone chooses his camp

The location might appear trivial if it were as well protected as a Presidential Palace. We're two hours drive from Nagoya, industrial basin the glories of the Japan, the automobile and electronics. The plant, is overlooking homes, in Kosai, seaside. The neutral facade of buildings chains assemble battery nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH), a technique proven, perfectly adapted to hybrid cars. Here, Panasonic EV Energy (Peve), joint ownership of Toyota (60) and Panasonic (40), is expected to produce 1 million units in 2010 against 500,000 last year. Since its inception in 1996, just before the launch of the first Prius, over 2 million batteries are outputs of these chains and today this entity to hold 80 of the market. But at the same time, the Toyota-Panasonic tandem has a look bolted on the new generation of lithium-ion batteries. At Kosai, two teams of researchers have put in competition in the same structure to develop the farm of tomorrow. One that particularly will equip future generations of electric cars.

For Panasonic, the proposed merger with Sanyo Electric, expected this summer, timely. Number one rechargeable battery, Sanyo Electric has, for several years, strongly supported the option of lithium-ion. As of 2006, the firm built an experimental and sent samples to automobile manufacturers. At present, account start the production of this type of accumulator in a year and in two different plants, but is very quiet here on the identity of its customers. "We are working with several manufacturers that, put together, represent a significant demand", recently said at the Reuters Mitsuru Homma, Vice President of Sanyo. The new Panasonic-Sanyo set should pull themselves to the forefront for car batteries and to ensure, according to Eric Lee, analyst for Barclays Capital, 35 to 40 of the market lithium-ion technology for models "plug-in" (which can be reloading on outlet) of Toyota. Partnerships such as the one established between Toyota and Panasonic, there are others in the archipelago. Honda is in joint-venture with GS Yuasa, Nissan with NEC.

In fact, the whole Japan started the race for the own car, hybrid or electric. Built as a national priority, the record is more strategic for builders that they have been stung to live by the crisis, which highlighted their fragility. Apart from Honda and Suzuki, all the big names of the Japanese automobile were finished in red. An admission of weakness that all wanted a girl more quickly. If they did not hesitate to cut their costs, to freeze investment, or even out activities prestigious, as did Honda with F1, they have by contrast than very partially affected R & D budgets ( 9 percent, to 2,030 billion yen), mostly devoted to the own car. This effort is amplified by those of industrialists of the battery, by OEMs, not to mention the State (see box).

Still too high costs

Equal weight, a lithium-ion battery allows to browse about two times more kilometres the equivalent model powered nickel-metal hydride. But not enough to make it the ideal product. "To commercialize an all-electric vehicle, need a battery to the clearly superior to those of the current generation performance", said Masatami Takimoto, Vice President, Toyota Executive of the R & d. "There to answer fundamental questions", says the leader. Let's start with the necessary reduction in the cost of production. It descends while just under the bar of the 1.000 per onboard kWh and must still reduce at least half to arrive at a reasonable price to the thermal equivalent. Currently, excluding grants, the difference in price between a traditional model and its equivalent in all electric version can go from one to three, even four!

The other problem is the capacity of the battery, still too low to limit the footprint and weight. These constraints are that, for the time being, the all-electric car can only be a small vehicle, city, covering a maximum of 160 km without recharging, believe manufacturers. Other debates remain whole as the residual value of the rechargeable batteries or their recycling rates. To support infrastructure, here again, much remains to be done. If a certain unanimity emerges around the car rechargeable from the home network which requires seven or eight hours, at night or in appropriate parking areas , on the other hand the rapid bounds divide. For their huge cost and overhead that they impose on the grid. TEPCO, the first Japanese electrician, prepares yet to break the price with a cheaper charger (about 1 million yen) and easier to use than conventional models (approximately 1.75 million yen) that work on catch high voltage. The city of Osaka will strengthen its network of recharging stations and to extend it to municipalities respect neighbours such as Kyoto or Kobe. Finally also remain to address the problems of stability of the battery, which tends to heat unusually for overload. The accidents encountered on portable computers and the fires they have triggered push manufacturers to caution. That the product is developed, the Ni-MH batteries were still beautiful days ahead of them. In 2012, should equip 70 of the hybrid, which could count then 3 million vehicles, Koya Tabata, analyst of Credit Switzerland.

In the meantime, everyone chooses his camp. Anxious to refine their "green" image, builders build their lines of fossil resources less greedy models. Level zero CO2 emission, all are not there yet, although a few pioneers risk. Mitsubishi Motors is the first to be the battle of the all-electric by putting on the market, in a few weeks, the iMiev, derived from a thermal model. In electric version, it is 160 kilometres without reload and reach a top speed of 130 km/h.

Nissan wants his catch

The Stella Electric Plug-in Subaru will it also its first tours of wheel this summer. Before the model of Nissan in 2010. Tired of dragging a good last image in the own car, the third Japanese constructor, to 44 of Renault property, made the all-electric vehicle a top priority. He missed the first round in the early 2000s, when Toyota and Honda already proposed hybrid engines, it is because its President Carlos Ghosn was occupied to restructure the Mastodon in distress. Anxious to make up lost time, the group is to launch production of its first all-electric car next year to the Japan and the United States (see page 19). And the hybrid "made by Nissan" will also be introduced in 2010.

On this ground, Toyota and Honda are far ahead, engaged in another battle. Numbers one and two national are indeed to open a new chapter in the hybrid powerplant by putting two new foals on the starting line: third generation Prius Toyota and the new Honda Insight, sold at price broke. Toyota provides a rate of production of 50,000 vehicles per month, Honda rises and already more than doubled the monthly best 5,000.

Whatever the manufacturer, the objectives are the same: be among the first to provide reliable, low-emission cars while keeping in mind that the final step will be achieved with the stack fuel. In the other field, Toyota indicated yesterday that he wants to launch on the horizon 2015 a first model.