Investing in Lithium: Toyota Tips its Hand on its Lithium Battery Supplier
The global race for lithium is still in the early stages. Successful investors have already started watching the lithium boom closely. Today, we got another major step in the road to lithium batteries becoming standard features in 10% of the world cars.
The world’s largest automaker, Toyota (NYSE:TM), announced it has entered into a deal to buy lithium batteries from a major supplier.
Bloomberg reports: Toyota to Buy Lithium-Ion Batteries from Sanyo, Nikkei Says:
Toyota Motor Corp. will buy lithium ion batteries from Sanyo Electric Co. from about 2011, Nikkei English News said, without citing anyone.
The Sanyo batteries will be used for a new hybrid minivan, the report said. Sanyo is likely to supply batteries for at least 10,000 vehicles a year, the Nikkei said today.
Lithium-ion batteries have higher output and capacity than the nickel-metal hydride type that Toyota uses in the Prius and other hybrids, the report said.
Sanyo isn’t the source of the Nikkei report, Tokyo-based spokesman Hiroyuki Okamoto said. The company’s policy is to provide lithium-ion batteries for any hybrid-car maker that wants them, he said.
This just proves how Japan is on its way to becoming a leader in the lithium battery boom. It won’t be an easy task. The U.S. federal government has already started dispensing its $27 billion in subsidies for the purchase of hybrid car batteries and grants to assist companies build lithium battery plants. Germany is going after it. France has thrown its hat in the ring too.
Lithium batteries will be a success. They may be better technology, they may not be. But lithium batteries will be so heavily subsidized that they will be a big winner – at any cost.
Stay tuned in on the explosion of lithium battery production in our free investment newsletter, the Prosperity Dispatch.
