Honda Cars : Sanyo to crank up hybrid battery production capacity by 75% | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Sanyo is one of the biggest suppliers of nickel metal hydride batteries for hybrid vehicles, along with Panasonic EV energy. Currently, Sanyo's primary customers are Honda and Ford, but the company also has deals with Volkswagen and Audi for future products from Germany. Ford's ability to sell hybrid vehicles has, in part, been constrained by limited supplies of major components like transmissions and batteries. That situation may soon change, since Sanyo has decided to increase its production of NiMH cells by 75 percent.

Sanyo currently builds two million NiMH cells a month and had been planning to increase that to 2.5 million. Instead, Sanyo has decided to ramp that number up to 3.5 million cells per month. Some of those will undoubtedly go to Honda as it expands hybrid production with the new CR-Z coupe and the hybrid Fit. The deals with VW and Audi are believed to be for new lithium ion batteries. It's not known how many additional units Ford might get.

Source;
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/06/27/sanyo-to-crank-up-hybrid-battery-capacity-by-75/

Honda Cars : New Honda Insight Employs Sanyo Battery | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

The new Insight hybrid, which Honda Motor Co Ltd announced at Detroit Motor Show 2009, sports the IPU (Intelligent Power Unit) whose volume and weight are 19% and 28%, respectively, less than the one equipped in the Civic Hybrid

The IPU is composed of a Ni-hydrogen secondary battery unit, a motor driving inverter, etc.

Because the new battery unit features a 30% higher output per module than the existing one, the number of battery modules in the battery unit could be reduced from 11 to seven, contributing to the small size and the light weight of the new IPU.

In the battery module, 12 cylindrical cells are connected in series. The new Insight is mounted with 84 cells in total, and the battery unit outputs a voltage of 100.8V, 57.2V lower than the Civic Hybrid.

The cell, which is manufactured by Sanyo Electric Co Ltd, has a current capacity of 5.75Ah and a voltage of 1.2V. The cell employed for the Civic Hybrid is a product of Panasonic Corp and has a current capacity of 5.5Ah.

The IPU incorporates an inverter and a control unit for the motor, which are positioned on the battery unit. It is an air-cooled type that intakes air from the sides of the rear seats and emits it to the sides of the luggage compartment. The battery unit is packaged in a foamed material to prevent water exposure even if part of the vehicle including the control unit and the inverter is soaked in water.

Source, with 2X more pic's of the battery;
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20090115/164089/