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Japan to give up to$2.4 bln in new support for domestic EV battery production

• Japan commits to third batch of EV battery production subsidies
• Support targets Toyota, Nissan, and Panasonic-led projects
• Expansion to raise Japan's annual battery production capacity by 50% to 120 GWh - media

TOKYO, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Japan will hand out moresubsidies for electric-vehicle battery production, pledging as much as $2.4billion in support for related projects by Toyota Motor (7203.T), opensnew tab and other major companies, as it seeks to strengthen its battery supply chain.

The government will support 12 projects for storagebatteries or those for their parts, materials or production equipment by up to350 billion yen ($2.44 billion), Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry KenSaito told reporters.

We hope that these efforts will strengthen Japan's storagebattery supply chain and the storage battery industry's competitiveness,"Saito said.

The move will help expand the country's annual productioncapacity for storage batteries by around 50% to 120 gigawatt-hours (GWh), from80 GWh currently, Japanese media reported earlier on Friday.

The government backing included support for investments byToyota, Nissan Motor (7201.T), opensnew tab, and joint projects that Panasonic Holdings' (6752.T), opensnew tab energy unit would run with automakers Subaru (7270.T), opens new tab and Mazda Motor (7261.T), opensnew tab, respectively, Saito said.

The latest support, opens new tab comes after the government pledged nearly $1 billion in subsidies for storage battery production in June last year and a first batch of subsidies in April 2023.

Toyota would invest a total of about 245 billion yen withits battery subsidiaries Prime Planet Energy & Solutions and Primearth EVEnergy to boost production capacity for solid-state and prismatic batteries by9 GWh, the industry ministry said.

Toyota will kick off the supply of the batteries fromNovember 2026. The plan involves building battery plants in Hyogo and Fukuokaprefectures, according to the Yomiuri newspaper.

In a statement, Toyota confirmed, opensnew tab the ministry had certified the development and production plans of its next-generation and solid-state batteries, but stopped short of disclosing its investment amount or information about new plants.

Nissan said in a statement it had received certificationfrom the government for a plan to produce lithium-iron-phosphate batteries.

The automaker aimed to install such batteries inmini-vehicles from the 2028 business year, targeting a domestic productioncapacity 5 GWh per year for which it would get up to 55.5 billion yen insupport, it said.

Panasonic's energy unit, which makes batteries forTesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, and Subaru said in a joint statement they would set up a plant in Gunma prefecture north of Tokyo for the supply of cyclindrical lithium-ion batteries from the 2028 business year.

Panasonic Energy will supply Subaru with such batteriesfrom a plant in Osaka prefecture from the 2027 business year, they said. Totalinvestment of 463 billion yen would target 16 GWh in annual production capacityfrom the Gunma plant by 2030, while another 4 GWh per year would be suppliedfrom the Osaka plant.

Separately, Panasonic Energy will make these EV batteriesat its Suminoe and Kaizuka plants in Osaka for Mazda from 2027 onwards, whichthe automaker will package, the companies said in the joint statement.

($1 = 143.1600 yen)

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyota-nissan-support-japans-battery-production-capacity-nikkei-reports-2024-09-05