Hyperdrive
Toyota-Panasonic Battery Venture Slashes Costs to Take On China
- Prime Planet Energy chief uses Toyota lessons to seek savings
- Aims to overtake China, Korea leaders in cost-competitiveness
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In late 2019, a few months before the pandemic upended international travel, Japanese automotive battery chief Hiroaki Koda flew from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, took a three-hour local flight and then drove another four hours to reach a salt lake 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) up in the Andes mountains.
The flat highland area near the Chilean border is where a vital battery component -- lithium -- is mined. Koda, the president of Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, a Toyota Motor Corp. and Panasonic Corp. battery joint-venture, was there on a mission: revamp the site’s operations to lower his cost of materials.