Nissan + NEC = AESC
May 19, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
Nissan and electronics giant NEC Corporation, and its subsidiary NEC TOKIN have announced that their joint-venture company – Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) – has started full operations as of today.
The company is setup for one specific reason, for development and mass production of advanced lithium-ion batteries to supply to not only Nissan but other manufacturers as well. The company plans to build these batteries for a wide range of vehicles, including hybrids, electric vehicles and fuel-cell vehicles.
The partnership allows NEC and NEC TOKIN to combine their expertise in cell-technology and electrode production with Japanese the Japanese car manufacturer.
“Nissan firmly believes the ultimate solution for sustainable mobility lies in zero emission vehicles. Electric vehicles represent one clear strategic direction embedded in Nissan GT 2012, our new mid-term business plan,” said Carlos Tavares, executive vice president of Nissan.
Nissan, NEC Corporation and NEC TOKIN all own part of the company with the equity split standing at 51:42:7 respectively.
Batteries will be partially produced at Nissan’s Zama facility in Kanagawa Prefecture and the company is set to deliver its first battery by 2009. First year should see 13,000 units but that will increase to an expected production capacity of 65,000 units with.
Lithium-manganese electrodes will be produced separately at NEC’s Sagamihara Plant in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Toyota is still struggling to produce lithium-ion batteries for its hybrid range, however there is talk that the Big T has already begun investing in future technologies past lithium-ion.
Lithium-ion batteries use a compact laminated configuration which gives twice the electric juice compared to conventional nickel-metal hydride batteries with a cylindrical configuration.
Nissan is working hard to introduce its own range of hybrid vehicles to compete with its Japanese rivals. So far the company plans to launch an electric vehicle to the U.S. and Japan as well as Nissan’s original hybrid vehicle by 2010.
2012 should see Nissan bring its electric vehicles to Australia and the rest of the world.
Print it: 
Good news in general and the industry will move forward. This does not mean in centres around one car maker as some on here believe!
It seems we might be all driving electric cars soon with petrol prices rising all the time.
Cheers !
Agree BULB…..thats what amazes me massively. All the hoopla and blah blah blah with V6’s and V8’s are becoming yesterdays hero’s and appeal less daily. Smaller more fuel efficient motors are the go and not giant wads of power! No wonder Toyota is well placed as they have gone done range away from V6’s and V8’s and high performance to appeal to fuel
price conscious.
That sounds good.
And with Nissan, hopefully they will showcase a car with 2 cylindrical tubes on both side of the car, just as a style. But those would be huge rechargeable lithium-ion batteries….
They should develop batteries that discharge less as they are cooled, since car designers are so good in designing airflow for the engine.
Clever move to guarrantee your battery supplies and make a fortune on theback of it as well.
Having seen diesel here (UK) at $3.05/litre electric needs to be here now by the sound of it. I was reading May 08 Car Magazine regarding performance of electric cars. It sounds absolutely awsome the likely figures.
Agree, displacement are heading to things of the past, and eventually confined to historics, collectors domain.
But dont worry sooner or later with technology you’ll be getting big wads of power from small packages ;)
If all the car makers agreed to make all the battery packs go in the same position so it goes down the center line of the car, you could slide the pack out at a service station (if you were doing a long trip)and just slide another charged one in then you could “reFILL” it up in a matter of minutes.
The service stations are there already so you have the infrastructure. Just like exchanging your gas bottle plus you charge overnight at your home if you needed to.
Only one problem with exchanging batteries like gas bottles – the batteries aren’t always emptied, so you would end up paying for unused capacity. When you exchange the gas bottle, it’s empty.
More likely the best batteries will be rapid charge types, such that you can fully charge from say 1/4 charged to fully charged in 1 hour. Then the servos would consist of a line of chargers, and you would go and have lunch at their restaurant while waiting.
Not sure how that would work in remote Australia, probably wouldn’t. So You’ll still need a good old diesel for round Australia travel.
I can see the problem there but normally on cars or bikes that have a meter saying that you have a set amount left to go, then you could minus the amount left and pay for the fully charged one.
So say you have (in radio control car battery terms) 1000mah left in the battery and you are swapping a 5000mah for it you would only pay for 4000mah
Yes it would be a long time before it went out west,
but it all relys on how long the cars coming out can go on a charge?
wow even more environmentally unfreindly batteries to be lumped on the world. surely there has got to be a better solution. and there is no way that all car manufacturers would agree to the same spec battery that could be universally replaced. and doesnt battery powered cars just mean a huge need for more power stations??? quick take your pick, coal or nuclear!!!!!
hybrid is only a stop gap for our reliance on fossil fuel, so unless hydrogen or electric comes out to the forfront then we will all be bicycling it.
Unless there is a “standard” of a battery pack shape and the infrastrucure involved then hydrogen is the only choice.
It is like Windows,Linux and Mac OSX they all run a computer but are mostly incompatable.