Nissan UK Battery plans confirmed

As was expected Nissan – the Renault Nissan Alliance – has confirmed its plans to build battery plants in the UK to produce lithium ion batteries for electric cars. It has also announced it will be building facilities for battery production in Portugal. And the UK plants will be known as ‘Nissan European Mother Site for Battery Production’. Wow. We have visions of a Dalek controlled enterprise with a soundtrack by Led Zeppelin! Perhaps not.

The aim of the battery production plants is to supply batteries for electric cars built by the Renault Nissan alliance, but Nissan haven’t actually said that they will build any electric cars in the UK. Hmm. The target production is 60,000 annually to be used in a range of Nissan and Renault electric cars that will start to hit the market next year (2010) – in the US and Japan – with full global roll-out by 2010.

The UK Government is subsidising the plans as Sunderland is being designated a Low Carbon Economic Area. The Portugese will also be offering similar incentives to the plants in their country.

The location of the battery plants in Portugal have not yet been confirmed, but Portugal has already committed to the Electric car, and plans to build 1300 recharging stations by 2011 in a deal with Renault , making this a very logical move by the Portuguese Government.

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