Although initially refusing to disclose any link to any known electric car manufacturer, Toshiba is announcing the intention of collaborating with multiple automakers for commercializing their SCiB battery.
It looks natural for that to happen, since names like Sanyo and Panasonic had already been added as battery manufacturers on lists of Suzuki Motors and Toyota, respectively.
“We are in a development phase with multiple automakers,” said Ryuichi Nakata, 59, head of Toshiba’s smart grid, solar power and lithium-ion battery division. Nakata has been with Toshiba from 1976 and he once anchored a unit in the United States. “Our strategy is to compete in an open market rather than doing business one-on-one.”
Toshiba is going to collaborate with Honda Motors and an undisclosed automaker, from whom it has already won orders, aiming to earn around $2.2 billion in 2015. The factory Toshiba builds in northern Japan is planned to start production in February 2011 with an initial capacity of 500,000 per month and aims to double output in 2012.
In 2008, the news have been saying that the Toshiba SCiB has the capacity of charging within 5 minutes at 90% of its capacity, and is being able to bear 5000 to 6000 charges until it starts losing capacity.
