Volkswagen AG will join forces with Japan’s Sanyo Electric to develop a lithium-ion battery, a key component of hybrid and electric cars, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday.
The German automaker hopes to start importing the battery for use by 2012, the newspaper said, citing company sources.
By working with Sanyo, Volkswagen hopes to catch up with rivals in eco-friendly vehicles, the newspaper said.
Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in personal computers and mobile phones, and Sanyo has the largest global market share for them.
Toyota, which has enjoyed enormous success with its Prius hybrid model, has worked with Matsushita Electric Industrial, known for its Panasonic brand, to start mass-production of a lithium-ion battery for use in Toyota’s hybrid models by 2010, the Nikkei said.
Nissan Motor Co and Japanese electronics giant NEC Corp have also agreed to start mass-producing a lithium-ion battery for a more eco-friendly vehicle than is possible with nickel-hydrogen batteries, which are used widely in vehicles now, the Nikkei said.
The lithium-ion battery that Sanyo and Volkswagen will develop will be smaller than a nickel-hydrogen battery, making it possible to design lighter cars than those using conventional batteries, the paper said.
Sanyo is going through a restructuring and believes its battery business is key to its turnaround.
Sanyo is currently manufacturing nickel-hydrogen batteries that can be recharged repeatedly and supplying them to Honda Motor Co and Ford Motor Co.
Volkswagen and subsidiary Audi AG will also adopt Sanyo-made nickel-hydrogen batteries for use in the Volkswagen group’s first hybrid model, to be rolled out as early as next year, the paper said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
RSS