To Supply EV Batteries to Daihatsu Motor

CATL and Daihatsu Motor have recently signed an MOU for cooperation in battery supply.

China’s CATL, the world's largest battery maker, has joined hands with Japan's Toyota to enter the Japanese market in earnest. 

CATL announced on Nov. 11 that it has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan's Daihatsu Motor Co. for battery supply and technology cooperation. The Chinese battery maker is expected to enter the Japanese market in earnest soon. A subsidiary of Toyota, Daihatsu mainly produces Toyota's compact cars such as the Passo and the bB.

A Chinese stock market media outlet reported that CATL will cooperate with Daihatsu to apply advanced battery technologies such as cell to pack (CTP) and battery management system (BMS) to battery production.

"Our batteries will contribute to ramping up production of electric vehicles and boosting their performances, thereby providing cost-effective electric vehicles to Japan and emerging markets," CATL said. This cooperation is an important step in CATL's global strategy, and that it will explore various cooperative models in Japan and Southeast Asia, it added.

In order to respond to the trend of electrification in the automobile market, Toyota Motor Company is actively pursuing an electrification strategy. The Japanese automaker already announced that it will launch 30 electric vehicle models and sell 3.5 million electric vehicles by 2030. In 2019, CATL and Toyota announced that they will forge a partnership for the supply of electric vehicle batteries. The signing of the MOU is expected to accelerate their cooperation.

Chinese battery makers accounted for six of the top 10 companies in the global EV battery usage between January and September of this year, said SNE Research, a market research company. The six were CATL, BYD, CALB, Guoxuan, Sunwoda, and SVOLT. They posted a combined market share of 57.8 perfect. On the other hand, Korea's LG Energy Solution, SK On, and Samsung SDI logged a combined market share of only 25.2 perfect.


In particular, the usage of batteries by Panasonic, a Japanese battery maker in September amounted to 3.5 GWh, down 8.1 perfect from the same month of 2021. Its market share also fell to 6.5 perfect. If CATL enters the Japanese battery market in earnest, it is expected to pull down Panasonic's market share.

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