Achi news desk-
YOKOHAMA, Japan –
Nissan expects to mass produce electric vehicles powered by advanced next-generation batteries by early 2029, the company said Tuesday during a media tour of an unfinished pilot plant.
Japan’s legacy automakers have fallen behind newer rivals like America’s Tesla and China’s WORLD in the emerging all-electric car sector.
But Nissan, like other companies, sees an opportunity to catch up and perhaps jump ahead with a new type of battery that promises to be more powerful, cheaper, safer and faster to charge than the batteries lithium-ion used today.
Solid-state batteries, which replace the corrosive liquids found in conventional batteries with solid metals, are widely seen as the next step for EVs, and leading carmakers are racing to develop mass-produced versions .
Competitors such as Volkswagen and Toyota have also announced efforts to produce solid-state EVs, with Toyota setting a date of 2027-28 to begin bringing them to market.
But significant challenges remain before the technology reaches commercial mass production.
The sprawling facility that Nissan showed off on Tuesday was still mostly empty, but company officials said it was due to begin operating a pilot production line by March 2025, with commercial production of EVs there to begin in fiscal year 2028, which runs from April 2028 to March. 2029.
“Once electric vehicles take off, costs will drop compared to the internal combustion engine. They’ll also be so convenient. For one, you’ll never have to go to a gas station,” said Is- Executive president Hideyuki Sakamoto told reporters on 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 offer 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, introducing the all-electric Leaf in 2010. The company said it plans to offer solid-state batteries in a variety 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 solid-state battery technology is a game-changer for explosively growing electric vehicle sales.”
