Nissan and NEC form new advanced battery venture

Nissan and NEC have signed an agreement to establish a joint-venture company to mass produce lithium-ion batteries for wide-scale automotive use by 2009.

Nissan and NEC Group will invest ¥490 million (approx. $4.1 million USD) in the partnership, to be named Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC).

AESC is expected to begin operations by the end of April, 2007, and will operate as an independent company. It will focus on the development and marketing of advanced lithium-ion batteries, designed to power future generations of electric-powered vehicles.

After one year, the partnership is to be expanded to include mass production and sales.

Nissan and NEC want the new joint venture to become the leading company in mass production of lithium-ion batteries for the global automotive community, leveraging technologies developed by Nissan and NEC Group.

In doing so, they'll have stiff competition. Others, like A123Systems, Valence, Saft, Lion Cells, Ener1 and EEStor, have head starts.

AESC says it will mass produce lithium-ion batteries with a set of unique properties that makes them "a highly competitive and appealing energy-generation solution for automotive application. Among the multiple advantages that the new batteries will offer are cutting-edge and environmentally-friendly technology, cost competitiveness, superior performance, safety, and versatility."

Nissan plans to introduce its own original hybrid vehicle by 2010, followed by a next generation electric vehicle in the early part of the next decade, said Carlos Tavares, Executive Vice President of Nissan.

Both companies said they're confident that there will be a ready and growing market for lithium-ion batteries in the next decade and beyond.