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Vincent Padois, head tutor at the Pierre and Marie Curie University who teaches robotics and is babysitting the Paris ICub, makes a demonstration with ICub robot, a ?hybrid embodied cognitive system for a humanoid robot" about 1 metre (3.2 feet) high, at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris September 4, 2009. Six versions of ICub exist in laboratories across Europe, where scientists are painstakingly tweaking its electronic brain to make it capable of learning, just like a human child and hoping it will learn how to adapt its behaviour to changing circumstances, offering new insights into the development of human consciousness. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

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    VW, Sanyo to develop lithium-ion battery: paper

    TOKYO
    Sun May 11, 2008 1:02am EDT
    Journalists talk in front of a Volkswagen TDI Hybrid car during the first media day of the 78th Geneva car show at the Palexpo in Geneva March 4, 2008. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

    TOKYO (Reuters) - German carmaker Volkswagen and Japan's Sanyo Electric Co will jointly develop a lithium-ion battery to be used in hybrid and electric cars, the Nikkei financial daily reported on Sunday.

    Technology

    Volkswagen will aim to start importing and using the battery in its hybrid and electric cars by 2012, the Nikkei said.

    The move comes after plans by Nissan Motor Co and NEC Corp to start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries, considered more environmentally friendly than nickel-hydrogen ones.

    Sanyo makes nickel-hydrogen batteries that can be recharged repeatedly and the batteries will be used by Volkswagen and subsidiary Audi AG in the Volkswagen group's first hybrid model to be rolled out as early as next year.

    But the lithium-ion battery to be jointly developed would be smaller and lighter than nickel-hydrogen batteries, enabling the car's weight to be cut by 200-300 kilograms (440-660 pounds), the Nikkei said.

    The new battery would also allow the car to have better fuel efficiency and acceleration, it added.

    Sanyo, which has the biggest global share of lithium-ion batteries used in personal computers and mobile phones, plans to invest nearly 100 billion yen ($973 million) to make and develop them over the next three years.

    ($1=102.80 Yen)

    (Reporting by Chisa Fujioka, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
    Technology


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