Nissan To Sell 51% Stake In AESC.

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1105418_nissan-seeks-to-sell-aesc-electric-car-battery-venture-report

Rather interesting.

Nissan must have leaf II in development and already driving around somewhere, perhaps it's using NESC cells or perhaps an LG Chem battery.

cros13

LG Chem.

Quiet possibly though I don't remember reading anything official, the 60 Kwh Nissan battery that was displayed certainly looked like an AESC battery but obviously could be LG Chem in the production car.

cros13

On the official side: Ghosn has publicly mused about a switch to LG Chem: http://www.wsj.com/articles/nissan-to-consider-lg-batteries-for-electric-cars-1437052009

On the unofficial side.... yup, LG Chem for the new Leaf. AESC couldn't hit the energy density LG Chem was getting for a similar cost of production. AESC looked at what kind of capital investment was required to match LG Chem's price and both NEC and Nissan didn't like the numbers.

The rumor is that the new Nissan Note EV and possibly the lower capacity Leaf batteries will continue to come from AESC. But the highest capacity pack for the new Leaf will be LG Chem.

cros13

cros13 wrote: »

On the official side: Ghosn has publicly mused about a switch to LG Chem: http://www.wsj.com/articles/nissan-to-consider-lg-batteries-for-electric-cars-1437052009

On the unofficial side.... yup, LG Chem for the new Leaf. AESC couldn't hit the energy density LG Chem was getting for a similar cost of production. AESC looked at what kind of capital investment was required to match LG Chem's price and both NEC and Nissan didn't like the numbers.

The rumor is that the new Nissan Note EV and possibly the lower capacity Leaf batteries will continue to come from AESC. But the highest capacity pack for the new Leaf will be LG Chem.

I never heard they were planning an EV note ? will have to be made cheaper. I do remember Nissan saying they plan to electrify their entire fleet in 2020 , seemingly they reversed their decision to supply plug-ins and offer fully electric instead. Probably because plug ins are a lot more expensive.

Nissan should continue to sell the leaf but rebrand it as another model and sell it much cheaper.

cros13

Deleted User wrote: »

I never heard they were planning an EV note ? will have to be made cheaper.

Yup, new Note EV due for launch in Japan by the end of the year, and in Europe in 2017. They will supposedly have a ~24kWh pack using commodity panasonic cells and a lower price tag than the Leaf.

ted1

Would they buy batteries that come out of Teslas Gigafactory or did they build it on the wrong continent !

I suppose it's good for Nissan really because they'd never be able to compete making batteries for their own fleet compared to a major battery company like Panasonic or LG Chem who will produce cells for many auto makers making xxxx times the cells so wise decision.

cros13

Well the idea behind the AESC joint venture was to sell to other automakers. The problem is they made some poor choices on both the R&D and production side and they're not able to compete with LG or Panasonic.

Battery manufacturing is getting to be serious business because if you can knock $10 off the price of a kWh you more than double your potential market between grid storage, transportation and other markets.

BoatMad

i suspect over the years you'll see Nissan acquire and dispose of several battery stocks. I wouldn't read a lot into this move.

cros13

BoatMad wrote: »

i suspect over the years you'll see Nissan acquire and dispose of several battery stocks. I wouldn't read a lot into this move.

Well the major thing about AESC is that their R&D is heavily tied into Nissan's and most of their production facilities are co-located with Nissan vehicle manufacturing plants. Nissan abandoning AESC puts the remainder of the company in a position where a big portion of it's value is as an acquihire (a purchase of a company for the value of its staff's skills) not as a going concern.

If expected production volumes of Nissan EVs using LG Chem's batteries are high enough then maybe it's worth LG grabbing the factories. However, I suspect LG Chem may be able to handle Nissan's demand with already planned facilities in Poland, the US and China.

BoatMad

The main reason car companies acquire shareholding is to influence supply chain security. That need won't change