NEC to expand the production capacity of Li-ion battery electrodes with METI support; targeting 10M kWh/yr by 2012
28 December 2010
The NEC Group announced that Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s (METI) “Regional Development Subsidy for Enterprises Creating Employment and Adding to a Low-Carbon Society” is supporting the company’s capital investment in reinforcing its production capacity of electrodes for rechargeable high-capacity lithium-ion batteries.
This expansion is a major milestone towards the NEC Group achieving a capacity of 10 million kWh per year in the 2012 fiscal year, compared with the current capacity of 2 million kWh per year. The NEC Group aims to continue expanding its production capacity to meet customer requirements.
This capital investment will be carried out by NEC Energy Devices, Ltd. (NECED; Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture), a wholly owned NEC Corporation subsidiary that develops and produces rechargeable high-capacity laminated lithium-ion batteries. NECED will leverage the subsidy to increase electrode production capacity by the 2012 fiscal year.
That is a huge amount of batteries.
Even Nissan/Renault is only planning 500,000 Leaf-type batteries ie at 24kwh 12 million kwh - and that not until 2015, so unless some car companies are vastly understating their electric vehicle plans I a can't understand where they see the demand coming from.
Posted by: Davemart | 28 December 2010 at 09:24 AM
Maybe HEV/PHEVs will use them all up. I would rather have a bit of over production capacity than not be able to fill orders.
Posted by: SJC | 28 December 2010 at 01:17 PM
I think these are general production goals.
It says Japan’s METI is supporting NEC’s expansion, a major milestone towards the capacity of 10 million kWh/y in 2012.
ENcouraging, but I weary of the EV forever seeming to be the car of the future.
We can do little but watch as the technology improves, and hope that alternate vehicle "fuels" are ready to blunt the next oil crisis before it bankrupts us (if we don’t beat oil to the punch and bankrupt ourselves otherwise).
Posted by: ToppaTom | 28 December 2010 at 07:29 PM
I could believe 10 million 18650's rather than kwh - that sounds unreasonably large.
Posted by: Davemart | 29 December 2010 at 01:43 AM
ENcouraging, but I weary of the EV forever seeming to be the car of the future.
ToppaTom, to be blunt: from under which stone did you just crawl?
Look at how much time it took Toyota to develop and perfect the Prius. Today's customers are very demanding. Expecially when it concerns the most expensive consumer good the average person will buy: a car. Car companies must be certain they bring rock solid reliable technology.
At least four models are now on sale (Roadster, i-Miev, LEAF, Smart ForTwo ED) and all big manufacturers have made serious announcements.
We have two plug-in hybrids: the Volt and the plug-in Prius.
Now what did we have 3 years ago? Nothing, zip, nada. Just some old RAV-4 EV's and garden shed conversions.
Posted by: Arne | 29 December 2010 at 01:50 AM
Anne is correct to compare what we had three years ago... nada. TODAY we have three EV and one PHEV (VOLT)- the Prius remains vaporware until they start to build them for public sale(in keeping with GCC standards.)
NEC is a major player and this indicates acceleration in large format battery development.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 29 December 2010 at 06:33 AM
So NEC are aiming to supply batteries for 10 million hybrids per year, or 300,000 EVs per year.
They wouldn't plan this without a solid order book, so which is the brave auto manufacturer linked up with NEC?
Posted by: clett | 29 December 2010 at 08:13 AM
NEC has certainly done an in depth market study. Anyway, it could always adjust the production tempo if required.
Posted by: HarveyD | 29 December 2010 at 09:11 AM
NEC and Nissan have been working together for about a decade. Obviously Nissan will need lots of batteries for the Leaf, depending on how many units they sell in what period of time.
Nissan also has the Altima hybrid, which could use lithium cells instead of NiMH. They could add more cells and make it a plug hybrid, which would get better regenerative braking energy recovery and even better fuel economy.
Posted by: SJC | 29 December 2010 at 11:50 AM
The LEAF is probably using a 30kwh pack, rated at a solid 73 miles of range by the EPA and well below the usual commuting distances in the US. 10 million kwh would do 330k LEAFS or PBP Renaults.. and I would not be surprised if demand does not exceed that in the next couple of years.. hurry up and build up NEC!
I believe PBP has an order in for 100k Renaults using those batteries.
Posted by: Herm | 29 December 2010 at 04:15 PM
@Herm:
The battery pack on the Leaf is 24kwh, not 30kwh, and average commutes in the US are well below 73 miles - GM reckon their 40 miles all electric range on the Volt will cover 80% or so of commutes.
I have made an error, of course, as NEC is the supplier to Nissan, through the AESC joint venture, so these batteries are largely for Nissan
Posted by: Davemart | 30 December 2010 at 03:01 AM