At a small plant intended to help revitalise a town ravaged by the 2011 earthquake, Nissan Motor Co is giving its costly electric vehicle (EV) batteries new life after they pass their peak performance. Global automakers are looking for ways to make cheaper EVs and prolong the life of their…
At a small plant intended to help revitalise a town ravaged by the 2011 earthquake, Nissan Motor Co is giving its costly electric vehicle (EV) batteries new life after they pass their peak performance.
Global automakers are looking for ways to make cheaper EVs and prolong the life of their batteries, which can account for up to one-fifth of each vehicle’s cost and are made from increasingly costly materials, including cobalt and nickel.
Starting in May, 4R Energy Corporation, a joint venture between the Nissan and Sumitomo Corp will begin selling rebuilt replacement lithium-ion batteries for the first-generation Leaf.
The batteries will be produced at the new factory in Namie by reassembling high-performing modules removed from batteries whose overall energy capacity has fallen below 80 percent.
They will be sold in Japan for 300,000 yen, roughly half the price of brand-new replacement batteries for the world’s first and best selling mass-marketed all-battery EV.
“By reusing spent EV batteries, we wanted to raise the(residual) value of EVs and make them more accessible,” said Eiji Makino, CEO of 4R, which on Monday opened the plant in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, around 5 kilometers north of the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the world’s worst since Chernobyl in 1986.
