Report: Nissan Leaf battery pack costs only £6,000 ($9,000)

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/05/05/report-nissan-leaf-battery-pack-costs-only-6-000-9-000-or/

no wonder nissan is able to make a profit at 32k

Gavin

[mod edit title for clarity]

That sure would be great news. I can't find the original Times of London story, but it would be great if true. Most interesting would be HOW they managed to do it.

I know....the crap papers talking about $1000 per kWh are just that...crap. But still that $375 is the same as the best price you can find for cheap, horrid Chinese batteries....Most prices for solid batteries are between 500 and 800 kWh...and it is hard to find those 500 priced batteries. So Nissan has worked a bit of magic here (it helps they own most of the battery supplier. I think most car makers will end up either joining, buying or making their own battery company).

I really hope this puts a fire under the other battery makers butts to cut their prices too....A price war on modern batteries would be a good thing.

Nissan making a profit on the LEAF from day one would be a good thing.

Yeah

Gavin

Here was the original story, from APril 4th:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article7086781.ece

Well, they *are* tooling to produce them in volumes of 200k packs/year in TN alone! The raw materials on these cells are cheap; it's capital and labor that's the killer, and mass production that's the key.

Good to have you back Karen.

I wondered about this. The raw materials did not seem to be that big a deal. I wondered about the complexity of the manufacturing process and the yields. If they have the yield curve down, then the volume is sure going to be the big help you cite. This would be a great.

Gavin said:

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/05/05/report-nissan-leaf-battery-pack-costs-only-6-000-9-000-or/

no wonder nissan is able to make a profit at 32k

Gavin

Click to expand...

LOL. I've been talking about this since the day Times published it. Anyway good to see autoblog picking it up.

Over 8,200 people have made online reservations in the past month for the upcoming Nissan Leaf EV, and for good reason. The $33,000 vehicle, set to be released later this year, is the first affordable all-electric vehicle from a major auto manufacturer. It's an early adopter's dream. Now Nissan has revealed the secret behind the Leaf's reasonable price: an ultra-cheap battery pack.

While most lithium-ion batteries cost $1000 to $1,200 per kWh, the Leaf's 24 kWh battery pack costs just $9,000 to produce, or $375 per kWh, according to a report in the Times of London. In comparison, the Chevy Volt battery pack reportedly costs $600 per kWh, and even the US Advanced Battery Consortium only has a goal of producing batteries at $400 per kWh by mid-decade.

So what gives? If the report is correct, Nissan could revolutionize the EV battery industry--assuming it will share its technology with other automakers. We still have our doubts, though, that this too-good-to-be-true pricing scheme is real. Nissan hasn't yet responded to our request for comment.


Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/1638583/nissan-leaf-ev-to-have-ultra-cheap-battery-pack

Yes, I am waiting to see if Nissan responds to this news or not. I am not sure what the advantage would be to responding, so they are likely to remain silent.

Further industry reporting on this article:

http://gas2.org/2010/05/05/report-nissan-leafs-battery-costs-a-staggeringly-cheap-375kwh-to-produce/

They own a majority of the battery company. They have been working on this for many years. They plan to build in bulk (the plant they are making in Tenn will produce 200,000 batteries a year). All this helps Nissan keep the costs down.

Now they likely won't have enough capacity to help other car companies, but they will have enough to keep their costs down.

And hopefully they will help start a bit of a battery war and get others to cut their costs too...

Gavin


ps....we are already talking about this in the Battery Forum



http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=293

$9000 to produce? Any guesses what that translates to when you're talking to the guy on the other side of the parts counter?

We can only hope it's going to be a cheap GOOD battery pack.

I think we've all bought cheap Li-Ion batteries for digital devices only to find the quality is miserable compared to OEM!

Gavin said:

ps....we are already talking about this in the Battery Forum



http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=293

Click to expand...

Let me merge the threads.

"we" might pay $900/ kwh, but massed produced by Nissan, the price will be much lower. i can see Tesla with limited #'s not being able to get their prices down significantly, but when cranking 150,000+ units a year, the price will be less.

there is a lot of room for improvement in charge storage, and i think its like the $180 hard drive i bought 6 years ago. today, i can get something with 10X storage for that much money.

when the market for EV's starts to take off, a demand will be created for better, lighter and cheaper storage options. that demand will create a vacuum that will suck in venture capital.

by the time, we have 1 million highway capable EV's on the road, there will be a whole new market recycling old tech batteries while the current technology will have doubled its performance

Dave, I sure like the sound of that....1 million EVs......