Asahi Kasei announced it will invest in additional equipment for coating Hipore lithium-ion battery (LIB) separators. New coating lines will be installed at existing Asahi Kasei LIB separator facilities in the United States, Japan and South Korea, with start-up scheduled in succession from the first half of fiscal year 2026, the company said.

The expansion will raise Asahi Kasei’s coating capacity for LIB separators to approximately 1.2 billion m²/year, enabling the supply of coated separators for batteries equivalent to 1.7 million electric vehicles.

Asahi Kasei supplies two types of Hipore wet-process LIB separators: a polyolefin microporous base film membrane and a coated membrane separator produced by applying ceramic and other coatings to the base film.

As one of Asahi Kasei’s “10 Growth Gears” (GG10) businesses identified to lead the next phase of growth in the company’s medium-term management plan for fiscal year 2024 with a theme “Be a Trailblazer,” it said the separator business is a focus of proactive investment for capacity expansion to meet the significant increase in demand for electric vehicle applications.

“Expanding Hipore operations globally to keep pace with the electric vehicle market is an important milestone for our separator business,” said Hiroyoshi Matsuyama, senior executive officer and president of the environmental solutions strategic business unit. “We are happy to support the growth of our customers abroad, and with the help of our established global locations, we can do that quickly by investing in existing infrastructure and then expanding further with new greenfield sites as needed to meet regional demand.”

Asahi Kasei said ti will continue investing to build its LIB separator supply infrastructure for automotive applications to meet growing demand, especially in North America where significant expansion of electric vehicle production is forecasted.