OSAKA: Japan’s Panasonic Energy Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. said Wednesday that they have begun discussions to forge a partnership on automotive batteries, aiming to seal a deal by year-end.

The battery maker under the wing of Panasonic Holdings Corp. and the automaker hope that the electronics group’s lithium-ion batteries will be used in Mazda electric vehicles to be released in 2025 or later.

Panasonic Energy will supply cylindrical lithium-ion batteries featuring strong cooling performance. The batteries are considered better suited for quick charging than prismatic batteries currently used widely around the world.

The company is building a plant for cylindrical batteries in the United States as it expects demand growth. It plans to raise the combined production capacities for the batteries in Japan and the United States to 200 gigawatt-hours by fiscal 2030, four times the fiscal 2022 level.

Mazda has already procured from the Panasonic group cylindrical lithium-ion batteries for 100 vehicles. The batteries will be mounted on the Demio EV, which the automaker started leasing in Japan in 2012.

JIJI Press