Nissan Motor Company 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 approximately USD 4.1 million in the partnership.  AESC is expected to begin operations by the end of April 2007, and will operate as an independent company. The new company will focus on the development, production, 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.

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.

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 consumers.  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 would be a ready and growing market for lithium-ion batteries in the next decade and beyond.