Sunday May 11, 2008

Nissan, NEC to mass produce lithium-ion batteries for cars

bloomberg.com, greencarcongress.com :

Nissan and NEC will jointly spend about 20 billion yen ($194 million) for the world's first mass production of lithium-ion batteries for hybrid and electric cars. The two companies plan to build by next year a plant capable of making enough batteries for 60,000 electric cars each year, the Nikkei reported. Lithium-ion batteries are smaller and lighter and than the nickel-metal hydride batteries now used in hybrid and electric cars, the report said. Automotive Energy Supply Corp., a venture set up in April 2007 in which each of the companies hold a 50% stake, will initially produce batteries for 10,000 electric cars at a Nissan plant in Kanagawa prefecture, bordering on Tokyo, it said.

- I'd suppose this might generate considerably more buzz if those lithium-ion batteries were to go into some suitable Nissan model, like say, the 2009 Nissan Skyline GT-R (above). And this isn't exactly "new" news, as it has already been posted back in Apr 2007, but this time we do have more concrete figures in terms of money to be invested and units to be produced.

With crude oil prices seeming to break new records every single trading day, the lithium-ion battery market for hybrid cars and electric vehicles is poised to take off spectacularly. It won't be too long before many companies are making lithium-ion batteries for automotive applications and participating in a multi-billion-dollar market. In time, the Li-Ion industry might even give the LCD industry a run for its money, in terms of potential size and economic impact. 60,000 lithium-ion batteries per year is just a start. We'll need millions of these. Either we do that, or watch helplessly as crude oil continues to break resistance levels and soar into the stratosphere, setting records into the $200's, $300's and $400's.

See also :

1. Nissan, NEC to make hybrid batteries
2. Hybrid vehicle battery market to reach $2.3 billion by 2015
3. A123Systems receives $30m funding to develop hybrid Li-Ion batteries
4. Sanyo, VW to co-develop hybrid batteries
5. GM sells assets to Toyota

(2008-05-11 15:18:56 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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