Toyota to Boost Hybrid Battery Capacity by 10%, Nikkei Says

By Chris Cooper

June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. will boost hybrid battery production capacity as much 10 percent over earlier plans next year as orders for its Prius model rise, the Nikkei newspaper said.Toyota to Boost Hybrid Battery Capacity by 10%, Nikkei Says

The automaker aims to increase manufacturing capacity to 1.1 million nickel-metal hydride cells in 2010, the paper said, without saying where it got the information.

Toyota originally planned to boost production capacity by 300,000 batteries from 700,000 a year, the report said. Panasonic EV Energy Co., owned by Toyota and Panasonic Corp., will make the batteries, the paper said.

Toyota increased output of the Prius in Japan this month as orders rose 75 percent since the hybrid went on sale in May.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Cooper in Tokyo at ccooper1@bloomberg.net