Nissan’s joint venture with electronics maker NEC Corp will invest ¥12 billion (US$115 million) to start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries — a technology widely viewed as key for next-generation “green” cars.
Nissan Motor Co executive vice president Carlos Tavares told reporters yesterday that the Japanese automaker wants to be a global leader in “zero-emission vehicles.”
Lithium-ion batteries are now more common in laptops and other gadgets, although all the world’s major automakers are working on applying the batteries for their cars.
The new batteries will be more powerful — and half the size — of nickel-metal hydride batteries that are now commonly used in ecological cars today, Nissan officials said.
Nissan’s joint venture, to be known as Automotive Energy Supply Corp, plans to make advanced lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, hybrids and fuel cells — all important technology to reduce pollution as well as gases linked to global warming.
“Nissan firmly believes the ultimate solution for sustainable mobility lies in zero-emission vehicles,” Tavares said at a Tokyo hotel.
A plant for the batteries, set to be running by next year, will have annual production capacity of 65,000 and a starting capacity of 13,000, Nissan said. The investment would last three years, it said.
The first commercial products with the new batteries are Nissan forklifts due next year, but electric vehicles for the US and Japanese markets will follow in 2010, Tavares said.
Tokyo-based Nissan has sometimes been criticized as falling behind Japanese rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co in ecological technology.
Toyota has a big hit with its gas-electric hybrid, Prius, which has already crossed the 1 million sales mark worldwide over the decade it has been on the market. Honda also has its own hybrid and fuel-cell models.
Nissan has said it will introduce its own hybrid in 2010, other than the electric vehicles planned for the US and Japan.
By 2012, Nissan plans to mass-market electric vehicles to consumers globally. It is also planning to make available zero-emission electric vehicles on a wide scale in Israel and Denmark in 2011.
Nissan said it would market its lithium-ion battery to other automakers and customers, an effort that will help cut costs by boosting production numbers.
But Nissan has competition in this race. Toyota has said it will start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries for plug-in hybrids in the next few years. Japan’s top automaker is working with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, which makes Panasonic brand products.
Massive global recalls in recent years — of laptops reportedly suspected of catching fire because of faulty lithium-ion batteries — have raised fears about their safety.
Nissan said it did tests to ensure the safety, performance and reasonable cost of its new battery. Nissan declined to give details of the electric cars in the works, including pricing.
The joint venture is 51 percent owned by Nissan and 49 percent by NEC and its subsidiary.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the