Nissan starts work on electric vehicle battery plant
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Nissan has begun construction of an advanced lithium-ion battery plant in Cacia, Portugal, to support the roll-out of electric vehicles from the Renault-Nissan Alliance in Europe.
The battery plant is being built on a 30,450m2 plot of land belonging to the Renault CACIA gearbox assembly plant following an investment of €156m (approximately £130m).
The facility will start operations in December 2012 and will have a total capacity of 50,000 units a year. About 200 jobs are expected to be created by the new plant.
‘The Cacia plant will be one of three facilities in Europe supplying batteries to electric vehicles produced by the alliance, starting with the… Nissan LEAF,’ said Toshiyuki Shiga, chief operating officer at Nissan. ‘Together, the three plants will enable the alliance to roll out electric vehicles in Europe on an unprecedented scale, bringing the world one step closer to a zero-emission future.’
Last April, Nissan began construction of a battery plant in Sunderland, which will start operations in early 2012 with an annual capacity of 60,000 units. Renault’s battery plant in Flins, France, will have a total production capacity of 100,000 units a year.
