The Hiroshima-based automaker will secure batteries and seek to increase production of fully electric vehicles at factories in Japan through the partnership with Envision AESC, the newspaper reported. Both Mazda and Envision AESC declined to comment. Automakers worldwide are spending billions of dollars to ramp up battery and EV production in the face of tougher environmental regulations. In August, Toyota Motor Corp said it would invest up to 730 billion yen in Japan and the U.S. to make batteries for fully electric vehicles as opposed to hybrid gasoline-electric cars like the Prius. Its rival Honda Motor Co also said in the same month it would build a new $4.4 billion lithium-ion battery plant for EVs in the United States with Korean battery supplier LG Energy Solution Ltd. Mazda is set to hold a news conference at 0530 GMT on Tuesday to talk about it medium-term business plan. Shoichi Matsumoto, Envision AESC chief executive, told Reuters last month it was in talks with automakers in Japan, Europe, the United States and China for new supply deals. Envision AESC, based in Japan, is Chinese renewable energy group Envision's battery business and originally established as a joint venture between Nissan Motor Co, NEC Corp and its subsidiary NEC TOKIN Corporation.
($1 = 141.7400 yen)
(Reporting by Tokyo Newsroom; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kenneth Maxwell)
