Japan completes auto-battery R&D roadmap

The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization drew up a final draft of the technology-development roadmap for new-generation automotive batteries in its second meeting in Tokyo, Japan, earlier in the year. The draft includes illustrations of storage batteries mounted in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and the travel distances of electric vehicles (EVs), together with targeted performances and manufacturing costs to be achieved around 2020. The project is intended to develop two types of storage batteries: a high-power-density type to be mounted in PHEVs and new-generation hybrid EVs and a high-energy-density type for installation in EVs. (March 12, 2009)