Nissan shelves Portugese EV battery plant
Four existing plants can meet global battery requirements, company saysNissan has shelved a 156 million euro (AUD$200 million) lithium-ion plant project in Portugal, saying its four existing EV facilities plants are sufficient for the time being to meet its global battery requirements.
With partner Renault, the company is taking care to match production capacity with sales of its LEAF EV and Renault’s Fluence and Kangoo ZE models, without surging too far ahead. Worldwide sales of the LEAF (pictured) hit 15K units in October.
The plant, sitting alongside partner Renault’s existing transmission plant in Aveiro, north of Lisbon, was expected to start production by late 2012, creating 200 jobs.
The timing is unfortunate for recession-stricken Portugal, already suffering the fallout of the European financial crisis and struggling to get out from under a 78 billion euro bailout.
Under the stewardship of its green-friendly former government, Portugal signed a partnership deal with the Alliance in 2008 to expand into zero-emission mobility. The deal saw the government building a network of more than 1300 charging stations across the country, until it collapsed under the weight of national debt earlier this year.
Nissan downplays any connection with the financial crisis. “We’ve analysed our battery output capacity and our four plants basically can make what had been expected to be produced by five plants,” spokesman Antonio Pereira-Joaquim said in a statement. “The Portuguese plant is the only one not adjacent to a Nissan car plant so it was suspended.”
The plant had been intended as the Nissan-Renault Alliance’s third in Europe – one will commence operation in early 2012 at Nissan’s car plant in Sunderland, England, with an annual capacity of 60K units. Renault’s plant in Flins, France is ramping up to a capacity of 100K units a year.
Annual output was projected at 50K units for use in LEAFs for Europe and export markets by 2015. The suspension is indefinite for the time being. “We are going to study alternatives for the use of the building that has already been built,” Pereira-Joaquim said.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance’s mission statement revolves around the quest for global leadership in zero-emission mobility, with the capacity to produce 500K EVs by 2015.
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