Marubeni Corporation (hereafter, “Marubeni”) and Panasonic Holdings Corporation (hereafter, “Panasonic HD”) are pleased to announce an agreement to establish a joint venture (hereafter, “JV”) for the purpose of providing fleet management services for commercial electric vehicles (hereafter, “EVs”). Marubeni and Panasonic HD aim to provide integrated support for the introduction and operations of EVs to large fleet operators, contributing to the deployment of EVs and the realization of a decarbonized society. 

While the adoption of EVs is gaining traction globally, there are limited numbers of use cases involving large EV fleets in Japan. Establishing economic rationality and operations unique to EVs is a prerequisite to the introduction of EVs for businesses operators of commercial vehicles. To introduce and operate many commercial EVs, important issues that must be considered include charging infrastructure, charging operations, monitoring of on-board batteries, and establishment of vehicle maintenance systems. 

The JV will provide various solutions, from identifying issues to realizing efficient operations by EVs, when fleet operators introduce commercial EVs. The issues identified and solutions proposed will be tailored to the fleet operators through providing trial EV operations and environments for these operations, alongside charging management and on-board battery monitoring systems for efficient operation of multibrand chargers and EVs. In the future, the JV additionally aims to establish a circular economy model with a view to secondary use of EV and batteries. 

Moving forward, the JV will accelerate the adoption of commercial EVs that support people's lives and decarbonize society by utilizing Marubeni's business resources in the fields of mobility and EV in tandem with the Panasonic Group’s know-how and technologies related to batteries. 

Joint Venture Overview
Company Name	(To be determined)
Address	Tokyo, Japan
Date of establishment	June 2023 (tentative) *Subject to approval from the required competition law authorities
Investment ratio	Marubeni 50%, Panasonic HD 50%
Business	Fleet management services for commercial EVs

Inquiries about this press release:
Corporate Communications Department
Marubeni Corporation 
Tel: 03-3282-3906

Mobility Business Strategy Office
Panasonic Holdings Corporation 
mobility_info@ml.jp.panasonic.com