Toyota, Matsushita set up new battery plant for hybrid cars

A week after announcing it will build its second battery plant for 'green cars,' Toyota Motor Corp. disclosed it will rev up production of its hybrid cars and is planning a third battery plant in Japan.

This is according to an Associated Press report, which stated that the planned $291-million factory in Miyagi prefecture, northern Japan, will be operated by Panasonic EV Energy Co., Toyota's joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.

Slated for operation by 2010, the plant will make nickel-metal hydride batteries, with production capacity at 200,000 a year, with start-up production at about half of that.

The move follows a Toyota's announcement to build a $194 million plant in Shizuoka, in central Japan, that would also produce NiHM batteries for gas-electric hybrid vehicles.