Japan's Nissan Motor, NEC and the NEC Tokin unit will form a joint venture to try to produce lithium ion batteries for electric and gas-electric hybrid cars within two years, the companies said Friday. Lithium ion batteries, once shunned as too unsafe and unstable for vehicle use, are considered a key ingredient for lowering the high premium that consumers and automakers pay for today's gasoline-electric hybrids as they can store power in a smaller and lighter stack.
All commercial hybrids now run on nickel-metal hydride batteries.
As drivers around the world grow more conscious of fuel economy and pollution, Nissan has lost market share to Toyota Motor and Honda Motor in the all-important U.S. market, where its sales in 2006 slid 5 percent from the previous year to 1.02 million units.
A breakthrough by Nissan and NEC in the highly contested business could put Japan's third-biggest automaker back in the game for offering next-generation "green" vehicles after trailing its bigger domestic rivals for the past decade.
"The evolution of battery technology will be a deciding factor in bringing tomorrow's electric vehicles closer to reality," Nissan Senior Vice President Minoru Shinohara said at a news conference.
NEC Executive Vice President Konosuke Kashima said the venture will aim for a top share of the global market for automotive-use rechargeable batteries, which some estimates have growing to around $2.5 billion by 2015.
Shinohara said that the technology behind the partners' latest lithium ion battery, which has twice the power of conventional batteries at half the size, is ready and that preparations are now under way for mass production and commercialization.
Once production begins in 2009, the joint venture, called Automotive Energy Supply Corporation will supply batteries for Nissan's first internally developed hybrid car planned for launch in 2010.
The venture will also aim to supply the rest of the industry in what Nissan Executive Vice President Carlos Tavares said is an indication of the automaker's commitment to doing its part for the environment, as well as ensuring a sustainable business for the venture.
Under an initiative dubbed "Nissan Green Program 2010" unveiled in December, Nissan, held 44 percent by Renault, set specific targets for cutting harmful emissions through stepped-up recycling efforts and the development of various engine and vehicle technologies.
That includes its own gasoline-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids, pure electric and fuel-cell vehicles--all of which would use lithium ion batteries.
Toyota, the world's most profitable carmaker and the first to sell a gasoline-electric hybrid car in 1997, has a battery joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial called Panasonic EV Energy, which mainly supplies to Toyota.
Industry experts say Toyota will probably launch the third generation of its popular Prius hybrid late next year using a lithium ion battery. Other automakers such as Honda, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler are also working on lithium ion battery technology.
