Toyota and Panasonic will announce a joint venture for the assembly of battery packs at very short notice. The planned partnership must start in 2020.
That reports the Nikkei Asian Review . Toyota will take a 51 percent stake in the company, which will enable both parties to better deal with the mostly Chinese competition.
Panasonic, known as partner and supplier of Tesla, will house five of its battery plants at the new company. The so-called Gigafactory of Tesla in the US state of Nevada is held outside the joint venture with Toyota.
Besides Toyota and its subsidiary Daihatsu, Mazda and Subaru will also be customers. Honda, which uses Panasonic battery packages in its hybrid vehicles, will also be asked to apply the new battery cells.
Possibly the joint venture of Toyota and Panasonic is announced this week.
