Nissan Reported Ready To Pump $550 Million Into Lithium-Ion Battery Plants
Nissan is ready to pump $220 million into its existing Japanese battery joint venture and an additional $330 million into a new lithium-ion battery factory in France that it would own with partner Renault, the Nikkei news service in Japan is reporting.
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Renault Fluence ZE concept is stylized version of EV the French automaker plans to start selling in Israel in 2011.
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Renault-Nissan Alliance chief Carlos Ghosn said just last month that the two companies were considering France as the location for a new battery plant, so the news from the Nikkei seems reasonable.
Renault Fluence ZE concept is stylized version of EV the French automaker plans to start selling in Israel in 2011.
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Both automakers will begin producing electric cars for sale globally, starting next year with the Nissan Leaf for the U.S. and Japan, followed in 2011 by a Renault-built EV to be sold in Israel and Denmark, and then, in 2012, with multiple models from both companies for worldwide sales.
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Nissan plans to begin selling the Leaf EV in limited markets in the the U.S. and Japan next year.
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The Alliance has already announced battery factory plans for the U.S., England and Portugal, and Nissan separately builds batteries in Japan in a joint venture with NEC Group called the Automotive Energy Supply Corp. The new investment from Nissan would be to boost output to supply batteries for Renault cars, according to the report.
Nissan plans to begin selling the Leaf EV in limited markets in the the U.S. and Japan next year.
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Ghosn has said the combined output of the Alliance plants could supply up to 500,000 electric vehicle batteries a year.
- Posted by
- John O'Dell November 3, 2009, 11:41 AM
- Permalink
- Categories:
- Batteries, France, Japan, Nissan, Plug-ins and Electric, Renault
- Technorati Tags:
- Electric Vehicle Batteries, EVs, Lithium Ion Batteries, Nissan, Renault
John, I'm wondering, with most of the green car effort going into hybrids and EVs and their batteries, are other technologies like ethanol and hydrogen dead? What about EVs that can be chaged with a roof-mounted solar cell?
Blackadder, et al: ethanol is far from dead, the Renewable Fuels Standard requires billions of gallons a year. Cellulosic, or 2nd generation ethanol - from waste instead of corn and sugar - is what's not there yet, and there's lots of $$ being spend to get it market-ready. Check out our story on Coskata (http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2009/10/coskata-fires-up-cellulosic-ethanol-demonstration-plant-near-pittsburgh.html). As for solar chargers on roof of EVs - someone out there can correct me if I'm wrong, but all the information I have says the size and weight of the solar array that would be needed to power even a compact EV is way too much for the car to carry. Rooftop solar panels are being used to generate auxiliary power - to keep cooling fans running, for instance. But that's about it until there's a huge breakthrough in downsizing, lightweighting and power generating capacity of photovoltaic cells.