YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — Nissan expects to mass produce electric vehicles powered by advanced next-generation batteries in early 2029, the company said Tuesday during a media tour of an unfinished pilot plant.
Japan’s automakers have fallen behind newer rivals such as America’s Tesla and China’s BYD in the emerging all-electric car sector.
But Nissan, like other companies, sees an opportunity to catch up and perhaps leap forward with a new kind of battery that promises to be more powerful, cheaper, safer and faster to charge than the lithium-ion batteries available today. are used during the day.
Solid-state batteries, which replace the corrosive liquids in conventional batteries with solid metals, are widely seen as the next step for EVs, and leading automakers are rushing to develop versions that can be mass-produced.
Rivals like Volkswagen and Toyota have also announced efforts to produce solid-state EVs, with Toyota setting a date of 2027-2028 to bring them to market.
But significant challenges remain before the technology reaches commercial mass production.
The sprawling factory Nissan showed off Tuesday was still largely empty, but company officials said it is scheduled to begin a pilot production line by March 2025, with commercial production of electric vehicles there to begin in fiscal year 2028, which runs from April 2028 to March. 2029.
“Once electric vehicles enter the market, costs will drop compared to the combustion engine. They will be so useful too. First, you never have to go to a gas station again,” Executive Vice President Hideyuki Sakamoto told reporters during a tour of the sprawling facility southwest of Tokyo.
“The engineers at Nissan are all working hard to create this new world,” said Sakamoto.
Nissan officials provide few details about many aspects of the technology, as well as the amount of investment and global production plans.
They said the company had come up with key, unique materials for the batteries, including a metallic form of lithium.
Nissan was an EV pioneer and introduced the fully electric Leaf in 2010. The company said it plans to offer solid-state batteries in a range of models, including pickup trucks.
“We are finally in the phase of scaling up our all-solid-state battery line,” said Shunichi Inamijima, corporate vice president.
“Our all-solid-state battery technology is a game-changer for exploding EV sales.”
___
Yuri Kageyama is on X https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
