Although Japanese battery makers currently have plans to greatly expand their production capacity at home, it seems this still isn’t enough and America seems to be the destination of choice for some new manufacturing plants. One of the companies planning on creating some green-collar jobs in the U.S. is GS Yuasa Corp. Their president, Makoto Yoda said, “Named must your fear be before banish it you can. We have to choose our next factory’s location based on growth in the given market.” While not a household brand name for most Americans, GS Yuasa’s automotive partner, Mitsubishi, is sure to ring a bell. They are using lithium ion batteries from GS Yuasa in their all-electric i MiEV which is soon to be tested in California. Although they have not yet committed to selling this car stateside, this announcement is sure to raise hopes.

Another company with American battery factory plans is Toyota. Having already announced plans to build Priuses in Mississippi in 2010, the world’s biggest automaker believes manufacturing batteries here will help them achieve their cost reduction goals. Toyota has been able to reduce it’s per vehicle cost by 50 percent since its first-gen Prius and hopes to halve those costs again in their next-gen. Of the decision company vice chairman Kazuo Okamoto said, “It is very difficult to make the main parts of batteries outside Japan, but we have to have battery production in North America,” No time table for the plants were given but when they arrive we think they will help provide both employment and environmental wins for America.

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Toyota has announced it will offer a plug-in hybrid vehicle with lithium-ion batteries (most likely, for lease, not for sale) in Japan, the U.S. and Europe by 2010. This is the confirmation of the success of Toyota’s PHEV Prius plan and tests in Japan and in UC Davis. Batteries will be supplied by the joint venture that Toyota set up with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which will begin producing lithium-ion batteries in 2009 and will move into full-scale production in 2010. While this sort of official confirmation is nice, Toyota isn’t revealing everything: the company said are working in a new type of battery which could outperform lithium-ion, but didn’t explain further). It seems that Toyota doesn’t want to fall behind GM’s Volt.

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The next Toyota Prius, which is expected to debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January 2009, will achieve the impossible: It will be a bit larger, have more interior room, feature significantly more horsepower, and yet somehow achieve better fuel economy and lower emissions than the current model. That’s the word from Edmunds’ Auto Observer, which quoted an unnamed source from Toyota as saying we can also expect a range of different Prius models as it closes in on its bid to be making 1 million hybrids per year by the early 2010s. he next Prius will be engineered so that it drives on battery power alone more often than the current model does. It will also feature a larger 1797cc gas engine, which when combined with a next-generation electric motor, will output 160 hp, a stunning 50-hp gain over the current version if all this proves true. The source also said to expect an approximate increase in fuel economy of 10 percent, which should put the Prius near, or perhaps over, the magic 50-mpg mark in real-world conditions.Finally, the next Prius will be from three to four inches longer and about an inch wider without adding weight. I’m still hoping the final version looks something like the Concept X (shown), which has more visual “weight” and a more muscular stance than the current car.

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Automotive News sat down with Kazuo Okamoto, Toyota’s executive vice president of R&D, in Geneva to discuss the Prius and the automaker’s future hybrid offerings. While the interview was short on details, when AN asked whether or not the Prius could spawn its own brand based on the popularity of the hybrid sedan, Okamoto responded in the typical parsed words of an exec talking to a reporter. “We are studying that, but I can’t say what stage of the study we are in.” Okamoto went on to say that utilizing the Prius’ platform for other body styles – including a coupe, sedan or wagon – “is possible.” Okamoto remained silent on anything of real substance, but his few comments confirmed what’s been assumed for some time: Toyota is looking to capitalize on the sales success of the Prius and the green identity it’s forged since its introduction.

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