Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. has been front and center in May with automotive joint ventures. On Monday, it announced with NEC Corp. that its JV, Automotive Energy Supply Corp. (AESC),
began operations to mass produce high-performance lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. Those are the same types of batteries used in laptops and other electronics; though they probably won't resemble the ones which suffered some bad PR after a string of spontaneous combustions in laptops on airlines.
The equity stakes between Nissan, NEC and NEC subsidiary NEC Tokin Corp. stand at 51:42:7, respectively. AESC will invest 12 billion yen ($114.6 million) over a three-year period in a manufacturing facility to be located at Nissan's Zama facility in Kanagawa Prefecture and operational by 2009. Here is Nissan's 4-year plan for the electric vehicle market:
The first commercial application for AESC's li-ion batteries is destined for forklifts for small business operators in 2009. This will be followed by Nissan's electric vehicle, to be introduced in the U.S. and Japan, as well as Nissan's original hybrid vehicle in 2010. By 2012, Nissan has announced its plans to mass-market electric vehicles to consumers globally, which will boost demand for batteries significantly.
As CD reported earlier in May, Nissan is talking with companies, governments (for example, the government of Kanagawa Prefecture) and cities to see what kind of incentives can make the
introduction of zero-emission vehicles more attractive. It already has two deals with Chrysler LLC. Also in May, Renault SA and Nissan created a JV with Bajaj Auto Ltd. to offer a
$2,500 small car in India in order to tap into a market which some say is growing faster than China's. -
Baz HiralalGo to the Nissan-NEC JV announcementNissan and Kanagawa Prefecture agree to study electric vehicle project
Juergen Lasowski
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