Nissan and Sumitomo Group recently established a joint venture 4R Energy, the company will scrap in electric car battery recycling.
Last October, Nissan and Sumitomo energy set up the framework of 4R Energy issued a joint feasibility study. Nissan said that even when the electric car at the end of normal life, high performance lithium batteries used in electric vehicles still contain 70% -80% of the electrical storage capacity.
Nissan said that the waste lithium batteries can be re-used and sale to the other industrial. Nissan believes 4R Energy joint venture will play a residual value of electric cars lithium battery.
4R Energy energy company’s total investment amounting to 450 million yen (about $5,270), Takashi Sakagami as the president. Nissan accounted for 51% stake in the joint venture, Sumitomo accounted for the remaining 49%. In addition, Nissan’s first production electric car Leaf will be held in December in Japan and the United States.
After Garmin recalled nuvi portable GPS due to the battery fire hazards last week, the Suzuki annouced recall notice for some vehicles models with the GPS system. Followed, Nissan has released the announcement, recalled vehicle models with nuvi GPS system in the United States.
According to the U.S. highway safety sources, the GPS battery will overheat in some cases, and there is a fire risk, and may even cause accidents.
The recall vehicles including the Altima, Pathfinder, Frontier, Rogue, Sentra, Versa and Xterra. It is understood that Nissan will deliver recall notices to the relevant owners by the end of September. In addition, these issue batteries from a three-class suppliers, the printed circuit boards have problems.
It is reported that Nissan is considering building a sports car based on the Leaf EV electric drive hardware. From a business perspective, it would likely make sense for Nissan to follow the same path set forth by Toyota/Lexus with premium hybrid models, and indeed, the Leaf is already pegged to get a pricier sibling at Infiniti. A premium battery electric vehicle could be sold a significantly higher price point, helping to subsidize the cost of more mainstream models like the Leaf.
The big question is what platform to use. Mercedes-Benz and Audi are both developing electric versions of their respective supercars. Nissan could do a battery powered version of the 370Z, which has both its positives and negatives. The Z is relatively lightweight for a modern car, although its small size could make packaging the battery problematic. A more likely scenario might be a version of the 2009 Infiniti Essence concept which was originally shown as a hybrid. The larger car would allow for more battery and range.
A third possibility that might actually be the best option is a new car based on the Leaf platform but with the motor moved to the rear axle. The compact size of the electric motor could make packaging easier than with an internal combustion vehicle, and much of the rest of the hardware could stay the same.
Nissan North America, Inc. has selected W.G. Yates of Philadelphia, Miss., as the general contractor supporting the pre-construction services phase for Nissan’s new battery plant that will be built at the automaker’s vehicle assembly plant in Smyrna, Tenn. The battery plant will support the assembly of the Nissan LEAF that will be built at the Smyrna plant in late 2012.
Nissan LEAF – the first in a range of forthcoming Nissan electric vehicles (EVs) – is the world’s first affordable, mass produced zero emission car and embodies Nissan’s vision for an environmentally sustainable future for road transport.
W.G. Yates joins Albert Kahn Associates as part of the Nissan design team for the battery plant construction project. Nissan awarded the architectural and engineering design services contract to Albert Kahn of Detroit, Mich. in January, 2010. Yates will be providing design support services prior to the start of construction scheduled to begin this summer.
Modification of the Smyrna manufacturing plant, which will begin later this year, includes a new battery plant and changes in the existing structure for electric-vehicle assembly. When fully operational, the vehicle assembly plant will have the capacity to build 150,000 Nissan LEAF electric cars per year, and the new plant will have the annual capacity of 200,000 batteries.
In North America, Nissan’s operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO2 emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling.
Nissan said it expects most customers will lease rather than buy battery packs for the vehicles.
Leases will account for the “vast majority” of batteries for models such as Nissan’s Leaf, Jonathan Dixon, the company’s business-development manager for zero-emission strategic planning, said Friday in London. He didn’t give a specific figure.
“With leasing there’s less risk for the customer,” said Dixon, who was attending the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit. Nissan, Japan’s third-largest automaker, plans to deliver the first electric Leaf hatchbacks late this year.
Carmakers including Nissan, General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. are preparing electric cars in response to higher oil prices, government rules on auto emissions and concerns that such emissions contribute to climate change.
But Nissan’s North American unit decided against battery-pack leases for the Leaf in the United States. “The battery and car will be transacted together,” said Katherine Zachary, a spokeswoman for Nissan North America. “If customers lease the car, they’ll have only one monthly payment, and if they buy it, they’ll only have one payment. We do expect more people to lease than buy.”
Leaf production starts this year in Japan. The automaker is also preparing to build the small car in the United States and the United Kingdom. Nissan promises that the lithium-ion battery model will be able to go 100 miles on a full charge.
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