TOKYO/NAGOYA — Toyota Motor has agreed to partner with Jera, a joint fuel-procurement venture between Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, in a bid to transform old batteries used for electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles into power storage system for renewable energy, Nikkei has learned.
The new storage system will consist of a lithium-ion battery and a nickel-metal hydride battery. The two companies’ objective is to establish a new technology that will enable storage batteries to operate more efficiently by combining different kinds of batteries.
Toyota and Jera will target developing the storage battery by the end of this fiscal year. Then, in fiscal 2022, the companies aim to connect the storage to the power grid so that they can conduct technical verification for practical use.
