Nissan Turns Over a New 'Leaf' with NEC Lithium Ion Batteries

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In August of last year, NEC Energy Devices Limited (Sagamihara, Japan), a spin-off of NEC Corporation (TYO:6701) (Tokyo, Japan) subsidiary NEC TOKIN, began construction on a lithium-ion battery plant in Sagamihara, in the Kanagawa prefecture. The company announced last month that external construction had been completed and that it would begin construction of the plant's internal works.

Once completed and operational next March, the US$148 million plant will produce 65,000 cars' worth of lithium-ion batteries per year for Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (Zama, Japan), a joint venture between NEC Corporation, NEC TOKIN, and Nissan Motor Company Limited (TYO:7201) (Yokohama, Japan). All of the batteries will be used in Leaf, Nissan's soon-to-be-released electric vehicle.

Nissan estimates that under normal standards, the lithium-ion batteries will have a life span of five to 10 years and will produce 24 kilowatt hours. The batteries are able to recover and store some of the energy created from braking, and charge times are reasonable even when using a standard 110-volt outlet. After use in the Nissan Leaf, the battery can be used for storage applications and can be recycled.

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