Daniel Leussink
YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) – Japan’s Nissan (OTC:) Motor will begin mass production of solid-state batteries for electric vehicles by early 2029 and will use huge foundry machines as it seeks to improve efficiency and lower costs for future models. The automaker announced this on Tuesday.
Nissan is betting on technological advances to avoid stiff competition from rivals like Tesla (NASDAQ:) and BYD (SZ:), which have been ahead of the curve in producing battery-powered vehicles.
Japan’s third-largest automaker will first test prototypes and develop solid-state batteries at a still-unfinished pilot plant in Yokohama, the city near Tokyo where it is based, before ramping up production capacity. Solid-state batteries are expected to charge faster and last longer than conventional ones.
Nissan plans to produce its first solid-state batteries at the facility in March 2025 and will employ 100 workers per shift to increase production to 100 megawatt-hours per year from the fiscal year beginning April 2028.
The automaker will also use the high-performance machines to produce the rear floors of electric vehicles that will be sold a year earlier. The process will reduce manufacturing costs by 10% and reduce component weight by 20%, it said.
Nissan has been using cast slabs for structural parts of front air conditioners at its Tochigi plant for more than 15 years, said Hideyuki Sakamoto, executive vice president of manufacturing and supply chain management.
According to him, the automaker was considering various options for manufacturing car bodies. “In the end, we decided to use a 6,000 ton gigacasting machine to make the rear body of the car using aluminum die casting.”
Nissan plans to launch 30 new models over the next three years. Of these, 16 will be electrified, including eight battery-powered vehicles and four plug-in hybrids.
The automaker, which pioneered electric vehicles with its all-battery-powered Leaf, is now aiming to cut the cost of the next generation of such vehicles by 30% to make them comparable to internal combustion engine models by 2030.
Nissan is considering a strategic partnership with a larger domestic rival Honda (NYSE:) Motor will work together to develop key components for electric vehicles and artificial intelligence in automotive software platforms, the companies said last month.
(This story has been officially corrected by Nissan to indicate production will be 100 megawatt-hours per year, not per month, starting in fiscal 2028, in paragraph 4)