Nissan Motor Co unveiled a new prototype electric vehicle yesterday with batteries twice as powerful as conventional technology, aiming to take a lead in environmentally friendly cars.
Japan’s third-largest automaker said the front-wheel drive, boxy-shaped car has a newly developed 80 kilowatt motor with advanced lithium-ion batteries installed under the vehicle’s floor to avoid taking up space.
The laminated batteries, jointly developed with electronics giant NEC Corp, pack twice the electric power of conventional nickel-metal hydride batteries currently used in hybrid and electric cars, it said.
PHOTO: AFP
Nissan aims to start selling an electric car in the US and Japan in 2010 and the rest of the world in 2012. It will have a new “unique bodystyle” that is not based on any existing model, the company said.
Nissan has been slower than rivals Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co to embrace gasoline-electric hybrids, but it aims to become the industry leader in electric vehicles.
Such cars have so far failed to break into the mainstream, partly because of their limited battery life.
Nissan is also developing hydrogen fuel-cell cars as well as its own hybrid system, betting that zero-emission vehicles will take a 15 percent share of the global auto market in the future.
The company also unveiled a prototype hybrid which will also be launched in the US and Japan in 2010, as well as a new, slimmer fuel cell stack with double the power density of previous ones and 35 percent lower costs.
In related news, GS Yuasa Corp, Mitsubishi Motor Corp and Mitsubishi Corp said they have purchased a factory to produce lithium-ion batteries to meet rising demand for electric vehicles.
The factory, which will begin operating early next fiscal year, will have an initial capacity of 200,000 lithium-ion batteries a year, the companies said jointly in a faxed statement yesterday. The capacity will eventually be raised five-fold, they said.
Mitsubishi Motors is aiming to be the first mass-producer of electric cars as stricter pollution rules and rising gasoline prices boost demand for fuel-efficient vehicles.
At full production, the factory will make enough batteries annually for 10,000 electric cars, Mitsubishi Motors spokesman Kai Inada said yesterday in an interview.
Battery maker GS Yuasa spent about ¥2.5 billion (US$23.1 million) to acquire the land and factory in Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, Inada said.
The venture, called Lithium Energy Japan, will spend another ¥10 billion to increase production capacity, he said.
All of the factory’s batteries will be used in Mitsubishi Motors’ i MiEV electric minicars, which will be introduced next year.
The carmaker will initially sell 2,000 vehicles to fleet customers before starting retail sales a year later.
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