New lithium-ion energy plant to mass produce EV batteries in Japan

By Matt Brogan | April 15th, 2010

Lithium Energy Japan (LEJ) has today announced that it will build a new plant in Ritto City, Japan where it will commence full mass production of lithium-ion batteries for use in electric vehicles.

The 37.5 billion yen (AUD$430.6 million) plant, which will be fully operational by 2012, will initially manufacture 4.4 million cells each year – or enough to supply 50,000 Mitsubishi i MiEVs with completed battery pack modules.

LEJ first began mass production of lithium-ion battery packs for electric vehicles in June last year, and has since that time been running at full capacity to meet growing demand for the new technology. At the present rate, LEJ manufactures 200,000 cells a year, or enough for 2300 electric vehicles.

A second line will be introduced to the existing Kusatsu Plant this year that will double that capacity, while another plant at Kyoto will produce an additional 1 million cells per annum (enough for 11,000 EVs) from December this year.

While the numbers may seem plentiful, the ongoing demand for EV battery packs for electric cars such as the Mitsubishi i MiEV, Nissan LEAF — and hybrid vehicles such as the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius — means future production will only continue to expand.

LEJ says that in successfully developing technologies to produce the large capacity lithium-ion cells (similar to the one pictured above) in a specially designed mass production line, it will by the second half of 2012 be capable of stepping up production to 6 million cells annually (enough for 67,800 EVs). The manufacturer aims to further expand its Japanese operations to accommodate 100,000 EVs per year by the middle of the decade.

For its construction of the Ritto plant, LEJ will receive the maximum subsidy of 5 billion yen (AUD$57.4 million) under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s “Regional Development Subsidy Program for Green Companies Towards Employment Creation” for the fiscal year 2009.

Radbloke

Saving the earth 1 factory at a time
Lazybones

Lots of Lithium in Australia. Why don’t we do this?? We mine just about everything else here…

Prius Pensioner

Not really, we are currently the second highest producer (behind Chile) at the moment, but our “reserve supplies” are very low. See the data below (U.S. Geological Survey, 2009).

Country↓ Production↓ Reserves↓ Reserve base↓
Argentina 3,200 Not available Not available
Australia 6,900 170,000 220,000
Bolivia 0 0 5,400,000
Brazil 180 190,000 910,000
Canada 710 180,000 360,000
Chile 12,000 3,000,000 3,000,000
People’s Republic of China 3,500 540,000 1,100,000
Portugal 570 Not available Not available
United States Withheld 38,000 410,000
Zimbabwe 300 23,000 27,000
World total 27,400 4,100,000 11,000,000
Lazybones

Cool so we have 1/50th of world Lithum reserves. Sounds good to me, especially when you consider we only have 1/284th of world Oil Reserves but we still drill for oil. So why not.

Also, that plant pictured above, needs a twin right next door to recycle used lithium into new batteries.

Also isn’t sea water another source of lithium?

Prius Pensioner

“Also isn’t sea water another source of lithium?” I guess I could be, but if you take too much, you risk upsetting the ecological homeostasis.

Andrew S

We mine everything except creativity…

We mined Magnesium and said that it would be a great idea to use it rather than Aluminium in wheels and engine blocks and body pannels, but no – thats too hard to manufacture and implement as a weight saving initiative in the Automotive industry…

Things like creativity in Australia is lacking quiet a lot also, development of technologies such as these manufacturing facilities go un aided by the Australian government. I think were still lost in that crux of ‘Bigger is better’ americanism’s hence why were still manufacturing V8′s – V6′s and other fuel dependant vehicles that carry around massive weights almost like saying “16 feet long, 9 feet wide and 69 tonnes of American Built Pride”…

Why cant Australia look outside the box every now and again???

Shak

I don’t think its so much creativity, because if we state those ideas than we thought of them, its more money. Our local arms of international companies are often overlooked in the grand scheme of an International company. We can create when we want to, its just that most of the time we don’t have the money to put our ideas into reality.

Shak

We already mine everything that we dont need. Hows about putting more money in developing LPG, or CNG, something which Australia has an over 200 year supply. All the infrastructure is in place, and the stuff is dirt cheap. While consumption rises, power does not drop that much and it costs much less than petrol.

Andrew M

With the new systems consumption doesnt drop as much.
Its actually very near petrol consumption rates.

Yep, develop LPG more I reckon.

Metals for batteries is more scarce than oil, and electricity prices will ensure an electric car is no cheaper to run per 100k’s versus a small diesel.

Bring on the LPG. As you already said, its cheap, and beyond that the infrastructure is already in place.
Plus…..LPG still keeps servos in business so we still have somewhere to pay 5 bucks for a bottle of milk

Shak

Why not aye? $5 for 2 litres of milk is an Aussie tradition.

Andrew M

And where else can you get it on Xmas day

Lazybones

Shak we already invest heavily into LPG/CNG/LNG. By 2020 we’ll be supplying the world market about 25% of LNG. Which is good for Australia, but means the 200 year supply is cut in half. Not to mention local supply is also kicked aside infavour of lucrative exporting.

We don’t have any battery processing plants like the one above, its a good horse to back given the amount of EV’s coming to Australia. The end result should mean cheaper batteries to local suppliers.

Andrew M

Lazy,
And more battery powered vehicles on the road will only cut the already precious metals supply down by a considerable amount.

Some people seem to think there will always be a renewable source of batteries on the shelf of Dick Smith. The thing is those batteries are made from a meterial that also has a life span of supply

When I speak of investing in LPG etc (and Im sure Shak means the same) I mean the technology of using it, not the investment of pulling the stuff out of the ground ans selling it for 2cpl to china.

What we need is more examples of Fords upcoming dedicated DI LPG vehicle and Kias LPG Cerato. Yes othe manufacturers have considered it too, but thats were the investing needs to be done.
I just dont see Electricity supply for vehicles as a really viable solution, and nothing more than a feel good temporary solution.

Any of the natural gases serves a better interim solution IMO.
I just dont know what electric vehicles propose that is worth hype
Lazybones

I know what you mean Andy, but LPG has been given plenty of investment. We need to focus on the future so we don’t get left behind. Yes we do need interim solutions like LPG and maybe NG cars also.

Batteries are fully recycleable, you can recover lithium from used batteries at almost 100%, so bringing that kind of technology to Australia has to be a good thing.

Look at the chart Prius Pensioner posted, Japan isn’t even on there. But they a pushing very hard and fast with the technology. Japan is going to replace all its Taxis with EV’s, they are estimating a 25% Co2 reduction when this is complete.

Andrew M

LPG has been given plenty of investment??? By who exactlly???

Ford has been the only one running with it, but even then their current example (before the update this year) is pretty old/basic tech.

They can cover nearly 100% of lithium in recycling??
Well I must say thats a good achievement, but it still doesnt tackle the costs nor the environmental issues vs a combustion engine

Oh and when Japan claims a 25% Co2 reduction, does that just mean there is 25% less they can blame directly on the actual vehicle, or have they found a way to produce electricity with zero emissions

Oh and then the 25% reduction must be of their vehicles total, not the countries.
I just love stats and figures. Unless its put into perspective it can make anything look good

Shak

I actually meant that the Manufacturers of LPG cars should be investing more in LPG technology

Neo Utopia

Australia will never have strong manufacturing so long as the average Australian desires a big house, owns at least two cars per household, owns lots of stuff to fill these large houses and the inabillity to work like robots like the average Japanese/Korean/Chinese worker who makes most of your electrical stuff.
DDH

Why don’t we process all the uranium that we mine here and then export it at an increased value, or heaven forbid even use it to produce some emission free power? We could dominate that industry and others such as LPG and reap economic reward but for some reason we don’t hmm…think the japs have lithium-ion covered though.
http://www.v2g.com.au Richo

Electric Vehicles offer some advantages which are not immediately obvious. Through Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology, electric vehicles can act as demand/supply buffers or electricity storage devices as well as renewable energy vehicles. Substations are aleady purchasing lithium ion battery packs for use in substations to smooth out peaking loads and supply from wind and solar PV intermittent energy sources, so why not share the asset and let the utility drive forward electrification of the transport industry?

Lithium can also be recycled when these batteries near the end of their life remember. Also, there are new energy densities possible with the Lithium Nickel battery, the Lithium Air battery and the Zinc Air battery. This will allow increase in range of 3-6 times current 240mile range of Tesla for example.

Electric Vehicles and Plug in Hybrids when deployed correctly do have a large role in our transport solution. They may not be the only solution, but they have a hell of a lot to offer once you look behind the immediate performance and up front cost characteristics.