Nissan broke ground Wedesday on its new battery plant in Smyrna. CEO Carlos Ghosn says the facility represents more than just a source of power for Nissan’s new electric vehicle.
The new plant will add 1,300 workers and build 150,000 batteries for Nissan’s new plug-in car called the LEAF and have capacity to make even more batteries. Nissan Motors CEO Carlos Ghosn says he’s willing to sell the extra batteries to other industries and even to competitors.
“The battery business, in a certain way, is a business on its own and will be managed as a business on its own.”
Ghosn says Smyrna will soon become the continental hub for lithium ion batteries. Nissan is already selling batteries to Subaru for its electric vehicle available in Japan.
Nissan’s technology has a 100 mile range when used in Nissan’s LEAF, which will roll out in a handful of cities late this year. The electric vehicles will first be made in Japan, with production moving to Smyrna when the plant is complete in 2012.
Smyrna will soon become the hub for Nissan’s line of electric vehicles. The automaker has staked its future on plug-in cars. If and when Nissan builds more electric vehicles or EVs, Ghosn says Smyrna will likely assemble them.
“Obviously, as we are going to be building competencies and infrastructure in Smyrna, Smyrna will be a natural place to continue to develop the production of EV’s for the Americas.”
Nissan is receiving a loan worth $1.4 billion from the Department of Energy to build the battery plant in Smyrna and retool the existing assembly plant. Starting in 2012, it will produce the LEAF, which is the country’s first mass-marketed electric vehicle. The cars will first be made in Japan.
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