According to foreign media reports, Japanese chemical company Asahi Kasei will build a factory in Canada to produce battery parts for electric vehicles.
The new plant will mainly supply key materials for Honda’s electric vehicle plant in Canada.
Asahi Kasei plans to invest about 200 billion yen ($1.
3 billion) to build a new plant, which aims to start production in 2027.
The new plant will produce lithium-ion battery separators, a key component of electric vehicle batteries.
The company expects the new plant to also supply other Japanese manufacturers, including Panasonic, which are expanding their production base in North America.
Honda is currently considering investing in a new company to run Asahi Kasei’s battery separator plant to ensure stable procurement of parts.
In 2022, the government of US President Joe Biden passed the inflation reduction Act, which includes tax breaks for electric vehicle manufacturers on the condition that more than half of the vehicle battery components need to be assembled in North America.
This will require car companies to purchase battery components locally, greatly increasing their demand for battery separators produced in Canadian factories.
Asahi Kasei is already increasing the capacity of its battery diaphragm.
In the coating process after the completion of the product, Asahi decided to invest about 40 billion yen to install coating equipment in three plants in Japan, South Korea and the United States, thus more than doubling production capacity.
These plants are scheduled to start production between April and September 2026.
According to research firm Techno Systems Research, Asahi once had the world’s largest market share of battery diaphragms, but its share fell to sixth place in 2022 in competition with cheaper Chinese and other manufacturers.
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