Recently, in the Beijing International Automobile Exhibition held during the Panasonic car business exchange and sharing meeting, Panasonic (China) Co., Ltd. automotive electronic systems company general manager Kuda Yuan Shi to the media, including the "First Financial Daily", Panasonic set up in Dalian automotive battery factory will be put into operation in 2017, is expected to 2020 Panasonic's automotive electronics business (car business) sales in China will reach 10 billion yuan.

Setting up the world's second automotive battery plant in China

Panasonic is currently the world's largest automotive battery supplier, and Tesla has set up a joint venture factory for automotive batteries in the United States. Therefore, Panasonic this time in China to set up a joint venture factory of automobile batteries, especially triggered the attention of the industry.

According to Motoshi Kuda, in order to meet the growing demand for environmentally friendly vehicle manufacturing in China, Panasonic has taken an important step in its vehicle business by establishing a joint venture, Dalian Panasonic Automotive Energy Co.

"The company will officially start production and operation in 2017. At that time, with Panasonic's advanced experience in automotive battery production and quality management, Dalian Panasonic Automotive Energy Co. will work closely with various automotive companies in order to fully meet China's automotive lithium battery needs." Genfumi Kuda said.

China's new energy vehicle market is optimistic. According to the introduction of Kuda Yuan Shi, China's new energy vehicle production in 2015 was 366,000 units; Panasonic according to the "Made in China 2025" forecast, from 2015 to 2020, China's new energy vehicle production will grow at an average rate of up to 1,31%, is expected to reach 1.43 million units by 2020.

To this end, Panasonic is actively laying out China's new energy vehicle market. The business scope of Dalian Panasonic Automotive Energy Co., Ltd. will include the design, manufacture, sales, after-sales service and import and export business of batteries for vehicle use, and the products are lithium-ion batteries for environmentally friendly vehicles. The company's capital is 273 million yuan, by Panasonic (China) Co., Ltd. and Dalian Liaomou Electric Co., Ltd. each accounted for 50% shareholding.

In 2015, Panasonic in China's car business sales composition, automotive digital, display, audio and other products about the comfort category revenue accounted for 68%; automotive camera module, intelligent car locks and other products about the safety of the revenue accounted for 29%; automotive environmentally friendly new energy products revenue accounted for only 3%.

With the Dalian Panasonic Automotive Energy Co., Ltd. put into production next year and the gradual development and growth, Kuta Yuan Shi expects that by 2020, Panasonic in China car business revenue structure will change significantly: comfort products revenue share reduced to 42%; safety products revenue share reduced to 8%; lithium-ion batteries, modules, systems, EV relays and other environmentally friendly new energy products share expanded to 50%.

Automotive Electronics Business Becomes New Growth Point

In the eyes of the general public, Panasonic is a well-known home appliance company. In fact, Panasonic has been expanding from the B2C (consumer-oriented business) field to the B2B (merchant-oriented business) field, and as an important part of Panasonic's B2B business, the improvement of the car business in terms of scale and quality has become an effective driving force for Panasonic's development.

In fiscal year 2015 (April 2015 to March 2016), Panasonic's sales are expected to reach 7.6 trillion yen (about 397.4 billion yuan), of which sales in the home appliances, residential business, automotive business, and B2B solutions business will be 2.1 trillion yen, 1.3 trillion yen, 1.3 trillion yen, and 2.9 trillion yen, respectively.

Hidetoshi Osawa, Chairman of Panasonic (China) Co., Ltd, said that along with the continuous growth of the home appliances and B2B businesses, Panasonic's sales are expected to reach 8.8 trillion yen by the 100th anniversary of the founding of Panasonic in FY2018, with sales of home appliances, the residential business, the automotive business, and the B2B solutions business to be 2.3 trillion yen, 1.6 trillion yen, 2 trillion yen and 2.9 trillion yen.

Currently, the automotive business accounts for only 10% of Panasonic's revenue in China, but there is a lot of room for future growth. Therefore, Panasonic has taken the car business as a new growth point for active investment. For example, it has set up Dalian Panasonic Automotive Energy Co., Ltd. to produce vehicle batteries; established Environmental Systems Co., Ltd. in Suzhou to produce vehicle exhaust particulate traps; and set up Songshengyuan Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. in Beijing to sell related solutions, etc.

Hidetoshi Osawa added, "Panasonic has changed its positioning of China from the world's factory to a huge growth market, and will continue to think about how we can assist China in solving issues such as air pollution, traffic congestion, energy constraints, and aging, and will conduct our business activities with this in mind."

Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic) Director and Automotive Electronics and Electromechanical Systems Division, Automotive Sales Department, General Manager Nagi Masaharu said that in order to achieve the goal of Panasonic's automotive business revenue of 2 trillion yen in FY2018, Panasonic will strengthen the system for the development and production of car batteries around the world, Panasonic automotive battery factories in the United States in 2016 has begun to produce in 2017 in China, Panasonic automotive battery factories will also begin production. In 2016, Panasonic's car battery factory in the United States started production, and in 2017, Panasonic's car battery factory in China will also start production, and Panasonic will strengthen the strength of car battery developers in Japan.

In addition to making a push into automotive batteries, Panasonic also contributed 49% to Ficosa, the world's third-largest manufacturer of automotive side-view mirrors, in June last year, and accelerated development cooperation between the two sides.

Yongyi Zhengliang said with confidence, the global automotive electronics market demand from fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 2018 will have 8% growth; and Panasonic automotive business sales target is from fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 2018 growth of 17%. "In the growing market, we have to achieve a growth rate of sales that exceeds the market demand ".