US secretary of energy Steven Chu announced on Thursday that his department had closed a US$1.4bn loan with Nissan North America to help modify the automaker’s Smyrna, Tennessee, manufacturing plant to produce the Leaf electric vehicle and its lithium-ion battery packs.
The loan is part of the $25bn Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Programme authorised by Congress as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. It is intended to speed the development of vehicles and technologies that increase US energy independence, create cleaner means of transportation and stimulate the American economy.
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The loan will result in the creation of up to 1,300 jobs when the plants are operating at full capacity. Modification of the Smyrna factory, which will begin later this year, includes a new battery plant and changes to the existing structure to accomodate electric vehicle assembly. When fully operational, the assembly plant will have the capacity to build 150,000 EVs a year and the new plant will have an annual capacity of 200,000 batteries.
The Leaf will be launched in the US, Japan and Europe in December 2010. The automaker has formed more than a dozen partnerships with states and electric utilities in the United States to support its EV launch.
