Toshiba aims to start construction of the new facility in the fall of 2009, and to start production in fall 2010. It has selected Kashiwazaki city in Niigata prefecture, north-west Japan, as the primary candidate for the new production site. The company currently produces SCiB at Saku Operations in Nagano prefecture.

SCiB adopts a new negative-electrode material that offers a high level of thermal stability and a high flash point electrolyte, and has a structure resistant to internal short circuiting and thermal runaway, according to the company.

The SCiB is housed in an SCiB module comprising ten 4.2 ampere-hour (Ah) SCiB cells aligned in series connection, plus a battery management system. Capacity loss after 3,000 cycles of rapid charge and discharge is less than 10 percent, according to Toshiba (Tokyo). SCiB is able to repeat the charge-discharge cycle over 6,000 times.

In addition to applications that include electric bicycles, motorcycles, automated guided vehicles, electric forklift trucks and construction machinery, which already use rechargeable batteries, the SCiB can be applied to electric power regeneration and stabilization in emergency power sources and wind power systems. Application in hybrid cars is also planned, with the intent of extending application to electric cars in the future, after advancing development of a high-performance SCiB cell.

Separately, Toshiba will meet growing demand for high- efficiency motors in the global market by establishing a new manufacturing and sales base in Vietnam.

The new company, Toshiba Industrial Products Asia Co., Ltd. will be located in Vietnam's Dong Nai province, and will manufacture industrial motors rated at under 100 horsepower, plus their parts.

Toshiba will construct a factory at Amata Industrial Park in Dong Nai province, on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. The start of construction is scheduled for April 2009, and the plant will come on line in September 2010. The site has an overall area of 80 thousand square meters, and the total investment in facilities construction and manufacturing equipment is expected to be in the region of $77 million.