The news coming out of the Tokyo show this week was all good for Nissan’s plant in Sunderland, north east England.
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Nissan already said it would build its new sporty crossover model based on the Qazana concept at its UK plant and the factory is emerging as a favourite to assemble the new Leaf electric car, which is due to debut next year.
The factory’s former boss, Colin Dodge, now responsible for Nissan’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said that a decision has yet to be made but gave a strong hint that Sunderland is in with more than a good chance.
The Japanese carmaker has already decided to build a new battery plant for electric vehicles close to the plant. Dodge said: “There are lots of things to be considered, but batteries are very heavy and costly to transport over long distances. We have said that we are building another battery plant in Portugal, but that is not close to one of our factories.
“The optimum is obviously to have car and battery built in the same place. I expect that we will be making an announcement within the next few weeks.
“But Sunderland does have a rosy future. The fact that the pound has weakened makes the factory even more competitive. The strength of the pound was a problem for us but having the biggest car plant in the UK is a big advantage.”
The Leaf was unveiled publicly at the Tokyo show while the Qazana concept was first seen at Geneva last March. Nissan insiders said the production model “will retain 80%” of the concept’s radical looks, including some of the interior features such as the motorcycle inspired transmission tunnel.
No decision yet on whether that name will stay the same either.
The Leaf will go on sale in the US and Japan next year, and in Europe by 2012 as Nissan puts the car into mass production. By then Nissan will be producing around 350,000 batteries annually at new facilities in Japan, USA, Portugal and the UK.
Andy Palmer, Nissan’s senior vice president with responsibility for the company’s zero emission business unit, said: “350,000 batteries a year is where we need to be to be viable.”
He said the Leaf would be comparable in price to “well-specified” C-segment cars – around GBP20,000 – and will have a range of 100 miles. A full charge from a normal household socket will take around eight hours.
In a move aimed ultimately of keeping the cost of battery technology down Nissan also announced a joint plan with Sumitomo Corporation “Reuse, Resell, Refabricate and Recycle” lithium-ion batteries, previously used in electric cars, giving them a ‘second-life’ as energy-storage systems worldwide.
The ‘4R’ business model is designed to capitalise on the supply of reusable lithium-ion batteries as electric cars achieve widespread acceptance. Currently there is no existing supply of large-capacity reusable batteries but Palmer said there will be growing demand for “second-life” batteries.
He described the venture with Sumitomo as “one of the biggest breakthroughs ever” for Nissan. He added: “There is a real shortage of battery energy storage which can be used to balance the draw on national grids at peak times. We are talking to all the utilities worldwide about this.”
Giving batteries a second life will also bring down the cost of ownership of electric vehicles, he said, by increasing residual values.
Even after the end of normal vehicle life, the high performance lithium-ion batteries will retain 70-80% of residual capacity and can be reused and resold.
The battery pack for the Nissan Leaf will be leased by customers and not sold along with the car.
