Dive Brief:
- Japan-based chemical manufacturer Asahi Kasei plans to build a 180 billion yen ($1.2 billion) integrated lithium-ion battery separator plant in Ontario, Canada, the company announced at the end of April.
- The facility is related to an agreement with the Honda Motor Co., which recently announced plans to establish an electric vehicle factory and a separate battery plant in Ontario.
- The plant will annually produce approximately 700 million square meters of Hipore brand polyolefin film, which is a coated film used as a separator for lithium-ion batteries in EVs. Production is expected to begin in 2027.
Dive Insight:
Over the last few months, Asahi Kasei has been moving to expand its Hipore brand presence in the EV industry and join the North American lithium-ion battery supply chain.
As part of this focus, subsidiary Asahi Communication announced plans in February to separate from parent company Asahi Kasei and change its name to Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Corp., which is expected to go live in October. The forthcoming company will take over the Hipore brand and the Ontario facility will be under its name.
Now, Asahi’s Hipore separator will be part of Honda’s EV battery supply chain in Alliston, Ontario. The polyolefin film separator will be inserted into the batteries used in the automaker’s cars, preventing contact between the anode and cathode, which sometimes causes short circuits.
Cathode materials maker Posco Future M Co. is also building a processing plant as part of Honda’s EV battery hub. The automaker is working with the two suppliers to sign joint venture agreements with each.
“The separator is an extremely important component that contributes to higher performance and durability of batteries that are essential to EVs,” Honda Managing Executive Officer Manabu Ozawa said in a statement. “We are very excited to partner with Asahi Kasei, having outstanding technological capability and broad expertise regarding separators. This will allow us to realize highly competitive EVs that can meet future growing demand in the North American market.”
The chemical maker has begun receiving financial backing for the integrated plant. The company will receive approximately 28 billion yen from the Development Bank of Japan.
Asahi will also receive support from the Ontario government, including a memorandum of understanding agreement between Canada and Japan that helps establish a battery supply chain.
Moreover, Asahi has been upgrading its separator facilities elsewhere.
In October, the company announced it was investing 40 billion yen to buy more equipment and install coating lines at its lithium-ion battery separator facilities in Japan, South Korea and Charlotte, North Carolina. Construction at the Charlotte site began this year and operations are expected to start in 2026.
