Nissan on Friday unveiled a prototype production facility in Japan’s Yokohama, where the company says it plans to manufacture solid-state batteries for use in electric vehicles. The company said in a statement that it plans to “establish a pilot production line at its Yokohama plant in fiscal year 2024, with materials, design and manufacturing processes for the production of prototypes on the line that will be delivered to the prototype production facility.” are being studied.” Nissan aims to launch its first EV with fully solid-state batteries by 2028.
All-solid-state batteries could theoretically charge faster, hold more power, and last longer than the lithium-ion batteries most EVs now use. Nissan said it expects to eventually use the batteries across its vehicle lineup, including its pickup trucks. It said its all-solid-state batteries could lower the price of battery packs to $75 per kWh by 2028 and eventually to $65 per kWh. The batteries should help make EVs much more affordable and ultimately bring them up to the same price level as petrol vehicles.
Other automakers are also developing solid-state batteries. Volkswagen-backed QuantumScape plans to sell them in 2024, and Ford says it will have the all-solid-state batteries it’s developing by the end of the decade. Toyota said last year it wants to start production of the batteries by the mid-2020s, but said research on the technology must continue; right now, all-solid-state batteries are expensive to make.