Sunday, June 21, 2009

Nissan to Build EVs, Batteries in U.S. by 2012

Nissan Motor Co. plans to launch production of electric vehicles and their batteries in the United States to tap low-interest loans for green vehicles, the Nikkei business daily said.

The overall investment is estimated at 50 billion yen ($516.4 million) and may rise to 100 billion yen, it said.

Under the plan, the new electric-car assembly lines are to be built at Nissan's plant in Smyrna, Tennessee.

The facility, capable of making 50,000 to 100,000 eco-friendly vehicles a year by 2012, is expected to first produce a small passenger car, it said.

Nissan also intends to construct a production facility for high-capacity lithium ion batteries at the Smyrna site with NEC Corp.

The automaker has applied for funding from the U.S. government under a low-interest-loan program to support the automobile industry.

Nissan will soon receive approval for a loan of more than 100 billion yen, the paper said, citing a source familiar with the matter.

Nissan intends to assemble up to 50,000 electric cars a year in Japan starting in fall 2010, the paper said.

No comments:

Post a Comment