Panasonic Energy has opened Energy Innovation Square, a lithium-ion battery research and development facility in Osaka, Japan, focused on materials development, cell design, prototyping, and production development.
The facility will work with Panasonic Energy’s Suminoe Production Development Facility in Osaka City to support development and mass production of batteries for automotive and data center applications.
Technologies and manufacturing processes developed through the two sites are expected to be deployed across Panasonic Energy’s manufacturing network, including facilities in Nevada and Kansas in the US.
Energy Innovation Square brings together approximately 500 employees working across cell product planning, technology development, and analysis. Combined with the Suminoe facility, which focuses on manufacturing technology development, the two locations will have a workforce of approximately 800 employees dedicated to battery development.
Panasonic Energy says the closer integration of development and production engineering is intended to shorten the path from cell design to mass production. The company is targeting a doubling of development efficiency by fiscal 2031 compared with fiscal 2024.
The new facility also consolidates development and prototyping work that had previously been spread across multiple locations. Panasonic Energy expects this to reduce development lead times associated with transportation by more than 15%.
The R&D hub includes a next-generation battery-cell prototyping line and a digital platform for combining simulation and physical-test data. Continuous process monitoring and statistical analysis will be used to improve simulation accuracy and design maturity before new battery technologies move into mass production.
For automotive applications, the development work will focus on requirements, including higher energy density and durability as Panasonic Energy continues to expand its lithium-ion battery technology for electric vehicles (EVs).
Filed Under: Batteries, Technology News