Japan's Honda, GS Yuasa to invest $3 bln for battery development, build plant -Nikkei

GS Yuasa

27/04/2023 15:15

TOKYO, April 27 (Reuters) - Japanese automaker Honda
Motor Co Ltd  7267.T  and battery maker GS Yuasa Corp  6674.T 
will invest over 400 billion yen ($2.99 billion) and team up to
produce batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and homes, the
Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday.
    The companies will start by building a new plant in Japan,
targeting a production capacity of at least 20 gigawatt hours
(GWh), the Nikkei added, without citing sources. 
    A joint-venture, which the companies unveiled in January,
will play a central role in the development of batteries and
materials as well as capital investment, the Nikkei said.
    Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry would
provide a subsidy of about 150 billion yen, the newspaper added,
without specifying whether that would be only for building the
factory.
    A Honda spokesperson told Reuters the report was not
something it had announced, and there was nothing it could
answer about it at this point, while a ministry official said
the same. GS Yuasa could not be immediately reached outside of
regular office hours.

($1 = 133.9700 yen)

 (Reporting by Daniel Leussink, Maki Shiraki and Elaine Lies;
Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
 ((daniel.leussink@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter:
@danielleussink;))