21st Dec - Public-Private Team To Develop Chips For New EVs, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nippon Steel

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will work with the private sector to develop a new power chip that could enable electric cars to run 10% farther on a single charge than those now on the road, aiming to bring the new vehicles to market in 2018, sources said Tuesday.

The ministry will work with Toyota Motor Corp, Mitsubishi Electric Co and Nippon Steel Corp. and others to develop a prototype by 2014. The public-private partnership aims to sharpen the competitive edge of Japan's auto industry by upgrading its environmental technology.

Under the plan, Nippon Steel and Denso Corp. will develop a silicon carbide material for use as a power chip substrate. Power chips are switches used to deliver power at uniform speeds.

Toshiba Corp, Fuji Electric Holdings Co. and Mitsubishi Electric will use the new power chip to make inverters -- which convert direct current to alternating current -- and install them in electric cars made by Toyota, Honda Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co. and others. Midrange models will be priced between 3 and 4 million yen.

An inverter equipped with a silicon carbide-based power chip could reduce power loss by two-thirds, allowing the cars to run further. Since such an inverter would be highly resistant to heat and high voltage, a small fan would be enough to cool them, helping reduce weight. Existing inverters require larger water-cooling devices.

Because developing a silicon carbide chip will require a huge investment, the risk is thought too great for companies to undertake on their own.

The Economy Ministry will provide financial assistance, having allocated 3.57 billion yen to develop the new power chip in its fiscal 2011 budget request. It has already earmarked 2.6 billion yen for the project in the fiscal 2010 supplementary budget approved during the recent Diet session.