Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
NEC Corporation
NEC TOKIN Corporation
Leading company to mass produce lithium-ion batteries for
the global automotive community
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., NEC
Corporation, and its subsidiary, NEC TOKIN Corporation, have signed
an agreement to establish a joint-venture company - Automotive
Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) - to focus on lithium-ion
battery business for wide-scale automotive application by 2009.
Nissan and NEC Group will invest
490 million yen (approx. USD 4.1 million*) in the partnership. AESC
is expectedto begin operations by the end of April, 2007, and will
operate as an independent company. The new company will focus on
the development and marketing of advanced lithium-ion batteries,
designed to power future generations of electric-powered vehicles.
After one year, the partnership will be expanded to include mass
production and sales. The new joint venture will become the leading
company in mass production of lithium-ion batteries for the global
automotive community using pioneering technologies developed by
Nissan and NEC Group.
NEC and NEC TOKIN bring expertise
in cell technology and battery manufacturing; while Nissan will
focus on the cell stack for real-world application in
electric-powered vehicles. AESC’s core product will be advanced
lithium-ion batteries for automotive application and the company
will be fully responsible to market its products to other potential
customers in the auto industry.
AESC will mass produce lithium-ion
batteries with a set of unique properties that makes them a highly
competitive and appealing energy-generation solution for automotive
application. Among the multiple advantages that the new
batteries will offer are cutting-edge and
environmentally-friendly technology, cost competitiveness, superior
performance, safety, and versatility.
Nissan’s partnership with NEC
represents a key component of its “Nissan Green Program 2010”
mid-term environmental action plan, as announced in December,
2006. “As a ‘Sincere Eco-Innovator’, Nissan continues to
develop forward-looking ‘green technologies’ that contribute to
sustainable mobility. Nissan will introduce our own original hybrid
vehicle by 2010, followed by our next generation electric vehicle
in the early part of the next decade,” said Carlos Tavares,
Executive Vice President of Nissan.
“Together, Nissan and NEC’s
engineers have addressed the key challenges of cost, performance,
safety and reliability ? we believe that we have a breakthrough
technology in the lithium-ion battery product we will produce.
Through AESC, this battery will be
made available to all automakers, and we expect this could further
accelerate the development of future generations of eco-friendly
vehicles,” explained Tavares.
"NEC brings to the partnership
years of knowledge, expertise, and resources in lithium-ion battery
technology through NEC TOKIN’s know-how, cultivated through long
years of experience in battery business.
Further co-development with Nissan has enabled a superior-class
battery that we expect to spread in the market at an unmatched
speed due to the wealth of benefits it will assuredly bring to our
future eco-conscious customers," said Konosuke Kashima, Executive
Vice President of NEC. "Moreover, the alliance with Nissan
guarantees Nissan as a prospective customer of AESC. We will also
strive to accelerate growth by expanding marketing to auto
manufacturers worldwide."
The evolution towards cleaner
powertrains will see the proliferation of a wider mix of
electric-powered vehicles including hybrids, plug-in hybrids,
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles made available to
customers. The establishment of AESC demonstrates that both
Nissan and NEC firmly believe that lithium-ion battery technology
will become an important energy-source solution to achieve a
sustainable mobile society. Both companies are confident that
there will be a ready and growing market for lithium-ion batteries
in the next decade and beyond.
NEW COMPANY OUTLINE
AUTOMOTIVE ENERGY SUPPLY CORPORATION
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Company Name: Automotive
Energy Supply Corporation (AESC)
Headquarters: Sagamihara,
Kanagawa, Japan
Date of Establishment: April
19, 2007
Business Description:
Development and marketing of advanced lithium-ion batteries for
automotive application
Start of Production: 2009
Capital: 490 million yen
(approx. USD 4.1 million*)
Stakeholders:
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (50%)
NEC Corporation / NEC TOKIN Corporation (50%)
Management Structure:
President: Masahiko Otsuka
Vice President: Nobuaki Yoshioka
(And 4 board members)
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* Calculated at 1 JPY = 0.00837922
USD
PRESS CONTACTS
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For more information, contact:
NEC Corporation
Corporate Communications Division
Tel: +81-(0)3-3798-6511
d-foley@ax.jp.nec.com
NEC TOKIN Corporation
Corporate Communications Office
Tel: +81-(0)3-3515-9118
kobiyamah@nec-tokin.com
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Communications CSR Department
Global Communications CSR and IR Division
Tel: +81-(0)3-5565-2141
http://press.nissan-global.com/EN