Nissan plans EV solid-state batteries
Japan’s Nissan will begin to produce solid-state batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) at scale by early 2029 and use huge casting machines to raise efficiency and cut costs on future models, the carmaker said on Tuesday.
Nissan is betting on technological advancements to stave off heavy competition from rivals such as Tesla and BYD that have raced ahead in production of battery-powered cars.
Japan’s third-biggest carmaker by volume will do prototype tests and develop solidstate batteries initially at an unfinished pilot plant in Yokohama, a city near Tokyo where it is based, before building production capacity. Solid-state batteries are expected to charge faster and last longer than conventional ones. Nissan expects to make its first solid-state batteries there from March 2025 and deploy 100 workers per shift to step up production to 100 megawatt hours a month from the financial year starting April 2028.
The carmaker will also use heavy force machines to produce the rear floors of EVs to be sold from a year earlier, a process that will cut manufacturing costs 10% and reduce the weight of components 20%, it said.
Nissan used casting boards for structural parts of front airconditioners for more than 15 years at its Tochigi plant, said Hideyuki Sakamoto, executive vice-president for manufacturing and supply chain management. The carmaker considered different things for manufacturing car bodies, he said.
“In the end, we decided to use a 6,000 tonnes gigacasting machine to make the rear body structure of cars using aluminium casting.”
Nissan plans to launch 30 new models in the next three years, 16 of them electrified, including eight all-battery-powered vehicles and four plug-in hybrids.
The carmaker, a pioneer in EVs with its all-battery-powered Leaf, seeks to reduce the cost of the next generation of such vehicles 30% to make them comparable to internal combustion engine models by 2030.
Nissan is considering a strategic partnership with larger domestic rival Honda Motor to work together on making key components for EVs and artificial intelligence in automotive software platforms, the companies said in March.