Competition heats up for electric vehicles

TOKYO - Automakers are shifting away from hybrid vehicles and pouring resources into electric vehicles in the race to develop the next generation of environmentally friendly automobiles.

The shift is being pushed by stronger emissions rules in Europe, the United States and China, as well as lower manufacturing costs for electric vehicles.

It does not appear that fuel-cell vehicles that run on hydrogen will become widespread, so automakers are focusing on electric vehicles.

Overseas regulations on emissions are quickly getting stricter. Starting this summer, some areas of the United States are set to require that a certain percentage of the vehicles sold be emission-free.

In addition, hybrid vehicles will lose their environmentally friendly status. And Europe is planning to strengthen environmental regulations from 2021.

These moves are pushing electronics makers to accelerate mass production of the onboard batteries that power electric vehicles. Panasonic Corp. is trying to increase its sales of onboard batteries to $3.4 billion in fiscal 2018, which would be double the fiscal 2015 level.

Mass production is bringing down the cost of batteries. The Japan Science and Technology Agency estimates manufacturing a battery in 2020 will cost a third of what it did in 2014.

Meanwhile, the cost of manufacturing equipment that converts hydrogen to electricity for fuel-cell vehicles remains high, and hydrogen fueling stations have been slow to spread.

U.S. research business IHS Automotive has predicted there will be about 50,000 fuel-cell vehicles produced worldwide in 2026, compared with about 2.16 million electric vehicles, making these the primary type of environmentally friendly automobile.