Pages with tag LG Chem
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Nissan cancels sale of its Battery manufacturing business to GSR Capital:
Since launching the LEAF, Nissan's battery packs came from its subsidiary Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC). In August 2017, Nissan announced it would sell that subsidiary to GSR Capital. On July 1, 2018, Nissan announced it was canceling the sale. GSR Capital, a Chinese investment company, was unable to raise the funds by the June 29 deadline. Clearly the batteries made by AESC were not desirable enough to warrant an investment. According to Reuters, Nissan sought to sell its battery business as part of a plan to get lower-cost batteries from other manufacturers, such as LG Chem who supplies sister company Renault. Nissan has talked with other battery manufacturers about purchasing the AESC subsidiary. Panasonic is quoted by Reuters saying they're not interested in buying the manufacturing equipment used by other makers, and that Nissan's formulation is not all that interesting.
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Nissan sells its Battery manufacturing business to GSR Capital -- Preparing switch to LG Chem batteries?:
Since launching the LEAF, Nissan's battery packs came from its subsidiary Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC). That subsidiary is now being sold to GSR Capital. The deal is being spun as a win-win as GSR Capital has deep pockets necessary to develop this battery business faster than Nissan could. Supposedly.
That might be accurate, ...or... It's long been rumored that Nissan wants to switch to LG Chem battery packs. If Nissan had switched to LG Chem batteries by now, the 2018 Leaf (due to be released soon) might have had a 200+ mile range with a 60 kWh pack. Instead the 2018 Leaf is rumored to have a 40 kWh pack which would give a respectable-but-not-competitive 150-180 mile range.
According to CleanTechnica,
NEC also sold its portion of this business to GSR Capital. According to Nikkei, where Panasonic had a growing EV battery marketshare due to its partnerships with Tesla and Toyota and others, NEC relied on Nissan and Nissan is looking to broaden its battery supply chain.
Nissan originally built batteries in Japan. With the shift to localized Leaf production in 2013, Nissan launched battery factories in both England and Tennessee. The original vision was that owning the battery factory would give Nissan an economic/price advantage. One supposes that would have only held true if Leaf sales had risen enough, but instead Leaf sales have held steady for several years.
In any case, the Renault side of the Nissan-Renault alliance already uses LG Chem batteries. That partnership has been very good for adoption of the Renault Zoe in Europe. A Leaf with better batteries should sell very well.
