Amid an industry-wide plunge in vehicle sales, Nissan Motor Co, Japan’s No.3 automaker, has suspended its mid-term business plan named GT 2012, but with the exception of its electric vehicle ambitions. Nissan wants to close the gap with hybrid pioneers Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co as consumers look increasingly to alternative-fuel vehicles. Together with its French partner, Renault SA, Nissan is aiming to become the first to mass-market pure electric vehicles with a global roll-out in 2012.
However, the develop and produce lithium-ion batteries is the biggest hurdle to lowering the cost of electric cars, and the high cost of setting up a lithium-ion battery factory makes Nissan heavily dependent on state aid to succeed in its zero-emission objectives. Last month, Nissan, together with Ford Motor Co and Tesla Motors Inc, received approval from U.S. Department of Energy for loans to develop and produce fuel-efficient vehicles in the United States. Nissan will receive $1.6 billion loan to build a battery assembly facility and retool its production plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, to build a new electric cars starting in 2012. Andy Palmer, senior vice president and head of product planning at Nissan told Reuters that the battery production for the U.S. site would cost just over $1 billion!
[Source: Reuters]