2013 Nissan Leaf Electric Car To Use New, Cheaper Battery

drees said:

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I can understand switching to Hitachi if their cost is lower, but then what are they going to do with the battery plants they are just finishing in Tennessee and the UK?...

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bruce5 said:

If you look at the comments under the article on greencarreports.com you can see the author concede that he messed up.

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John Voelcker
Posted: 8/27/2012 7:29pm PDT
@Bruce: Interesting point. But the lengthy discussion of Leaf sales--the only Nissan model named--makes it the logical car being discussed.

Perhaps nuances of the original story were lost in translation, and it refers to a different Nissan "eco-friendly" model--that's not named or otherwise described. Japanese readers are welcome to weigh in here, but the Leaf is now Nissan's sole "green" car in the U.S. market.

If that's the case, I have to think that car is the Altima Hybrid to be introduced for 2014. It would be odd for that model to use Hitachi cells when the Infiniti M35h (the company's only hybrid now sold in the U.S.) used AESC cells. Though, I suppose, not entirely impossible...

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bruce5 said:

E-mail to me from the editor of the paper that started this speculation about the Leaf and Hitachi.

Thank you very much for your inquiry. The story was written by the two reporters in Japanese and translated by one of our staff for the English edition. In the process of translating the article, the translator throught there was only one "eco-friendly" model. The original story, however, mentions two models-- "Altima" and "Pathfinder."
We are sorry for creating confusion over the story.

Best regards,
Yumiko Miyai
Editor, The Daily Yomiuri

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bruce5 said:

They Japanese publication corrected their english version after i pointed it out to the editor.

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spike09 said:

bruce5 said:

E-mail to me from the editor of the paper that started this speculation about the Leaf and Hitachi.

Thank you very much for your inquiry. The story was written by the two reporters in Japanese and translated by one of our staff for the English edition. In the process of translating the article, the translator throught there was only one "eco-friendly" model. The original story, however, mentions two models-- "Altima" and "Pathfinder."
We are sorry for creating confusion over the story.

Best regards,
Yumiko Miyai
Editor, The Daily Yomiuri

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Here is the orginal article in English
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T120827003564.htm

"Nissan Motor Co. will adopt lithium-ion batteries produced by Hitachi, Ltd., a non-affiliated company, for two of its eco-friendly models--Altima and Pathfinder--to be marketed in the United States for 2013, Nissan officials have said."

The article also mentions that Honda is using an outside vendor for the Honda Fit EV!

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DanCar said:

http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/09/14/nissans-ghosn-leaf-electric-car-will-get-a-better-battery/
Not much new here. Ghosn saying cheaper battery being manufactured now.

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DanCar said:

http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/09/14/nissans-ghosn-leaf-electric-car-will-get-a-better-battery/
Not much new here. Ghosn saying cheaper battery being manufactured now.

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DanCar said:

http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/09/14/nissans-ghosn-leaf-electric-car-will-get-a-better-battery/
Not much new here. Ghosn saying cheaper battery being manufactured now.

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“There is a second generation of battery coming (online) now…which is less costly than the previous one,” Mr. Ghosn said in an interview Friday.

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drees said:

Edit: after reading that article, it doesn't even have the quote mentioned in the blog post DanCar refers to. Weird. This article has a bit more detail: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120914-703503.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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WSJ Interview with Carlos Ghosn said:

TOKYO--Nissan Motor Co. (7201.TO) Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said that his company is working on improving the battery powering its Leaf electric vehicle, which may allow it to reduce prices and boost the eco-car's flagging sales.

"There is a second generation of battery coming (online) now...which is less costly than the previous one," Mr. Ghosn said in an interview Friday. "We are in a race in which you reduce the costs and adapt the price," he added.

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WSJ Interview with Carlos Ghosn said:

Nissan has sold more than 35,000 units of its five-door hatchback EV, which features a rechargeable battery instead of a gas engine, since its debut in late 2010. But the pace of Leaf sales has slowed recently, falling 50% from last year in August to just 685 vehicles in the U.S., where it sold a total of 9,674 units in 2011.

While demand from Americans has been sluggish so far this year, Nissan's CEO didn't back away from a 20,000 sales goal for the Leaf in the U.S. for the fiscal year through March.

"It's too early to (make a) call on the objective for the year, even though we recognize that the start of the year has been slow," he said, blaming a lack of charging stations and unease with new technology.

The company has forecast global sales for the Leaf of 40,000 in the current fiscal year and 1.5 million EVs by 2016 for both Nissan and its alliance partner, Renault SA, where Mr. Ghosn also serves as CEO and chairman.

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"It's too early to (make a) call on the objective for the year, even though we recognize that the start of the year has been slow," he said, blaming a lack of charging stations and unease with new technology...

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davewill said:

Cheaper isn't surprising. After all, they've built new factories, one would hope they would result in a cheaper battery. It's the better part that I haven't seen any indication of.

Or course, from Nissan's POV, cheaper is better...

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ztanos said:

Could this lead to larger batteries for the same price? Meaning more capacity? Just curious. Cheaper can be better after all, if this were the case.

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