Nissan works on recharging Leaf with solar power

By YURI KAGEYAMA - AP Business Writer | AP

from http://news.yahoo.com/

• Nissan Motor Co. chief vehicle engineer Hidetoshi Kadota demonstrates a quick charge …
  
• 
  A man stands by a monitor screens displaying operating conditions of the Nissan Motor …

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — Japanese automaker Nissan is testing a super-green way to recharge its Leaf electric vehicle using solar power, part of a broader drive to improve electricity storage systems.

Nissan's Leaf went on sale late last year, but the automaker is looking ahead to about five years time when aging Leaf vehicles may offer alternative business opportunities in using their lithium-ion batteries as a storage place for electricity.

Nissan Motor Corp. acknowledges that, once the Leaf catches on, a flood of used batteries could result as the life span of a battery is longer than an electric vehicle's.

Electricity generation and storage are drawing attention in Japan after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused massive blackouts in the country's northeast. A nuclear power plant that went into meltdown, Fukushima Dai-ichi, after backup generators were destroyed by the tsunami, is also renewing fears about a power crunch.

In the new charging system, demonstrated to reporters Monday, electricity is generated through 488 solar cells installed on the roof of the Nissan headquarters building in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo.

Four batteries from the Leaf had been placed in a box in a cellar-like part of the building, and store the electricity generated from the solar cells, which is enough to fully charge 1,800 Leaf vehicles a year, according to Nissan.

Although interest is growing in renewable energy such as solar and wind power, a major challenge is the storage of electricity, which remains expensive without a breakthrough in battery technology.

Such interest is likely to keep growing in Japan because of fears about the safety of nuclear power. The Hamaoka nuclear plant is being shut down because of such concerns, and more may follow.

Other Japanese automakers, such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., are working on similar projects, such as linking hybrids with solar-equipped homes as part of energy-efficient communities called "smart grids."

Electric vehicles produce no pollution or global-warming gases but need electricity, whose production mostly relies on polluting oil or gas.

Even after a Leaf is ready to be scrapped, its battery is likely to have 80 percent of its capacity. On the plus side, the Leaf with its high-capacity battery can store the equivalent of two days of household electricity use, Nissan said.

"What's important for Nissan is to show solutions through EVs, step by step," said Corporate Vice President Hideaki Watanabe.

A joint venture with Sumitomo Corp. called 4R Energy Corp. plans to offer eletricity storage systems like the one at Nissan headquarters for business and public facilities as a commercial product by 2016.

Nissan also hopes to start selling such storage systems for regular homes by the fiscal year starting in April 2012. It will carry out field tests from December, 4R Energy President Takashi Sakagami said.

___

Yuri Kageyama can be reached at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Nissan Unveils Electric Car, to Be Available Next Year...The Leaf

Itsuo Inouye/Associated Press

Nissan plans to start selling a new battery-powered all-electric car, the Leaf, next year in Japan, Europe and the United States.

By REUTERS

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) — Nissan, Japan’s third-largest automaker, took the wraps off its much-awaited electric car on Sunday, naming the hatchback the Leaf.

Nissan and its French partner, Renault, have been aggressive proponents of pure electric vehicles with no emissions, announcing plans to mass-market the clean but expensive cars globally in 2012.

Nissan will begin selling the first Leaf cars in the United States, Japan and Europe toward the end of 2010, adding two more models soon after. It expects production to start with about 200,000 units a year.

Coordinating the car’s introduction with the inauguration of Nissan’s global headquarters in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, the chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, drove up to the stage in a sky-blue Leaf prototype. Nissan is returning to the port city of Yokohama, where it was founded in 1933, after being based in Tokyo’s high-end Ginza shopping district for 41 years.

Hurt by sliding vehicle sales worldwide since the financial crisis hit last year, Nissan has suspended its goals set under a midterm business plan, with the exception of its aggressive push into electric cars.

With oil prices topping $60 even in a recession and environmental regulations tightening all the time, Mr. Ghosn said he was optimistic about electric vehicles entering the mainstream, expecting them to represent one in 10 new cars globally by 2020.

Other automakers like Toyota and Volkswagen have announced plans to start producing electric cars, but they say it could take decades for the vehicles to spread because of their high cost, limited driving range and long charging times with the current battery technology.

Nissan did not announce pricing for the five-seater Leaf, but Mr. Ghosn said the price, without the expensive lithium-ion battery that Nissan is considering leasing, would be within the range of a comparable gasoline-engine car.

The Leaf has a top speed of more than 76 miles an hour and a cruising range of at least 100 miles — a distance that covers the needs of 80 percent of drivers, Nissan said.

The carmaker has lagged its domestic rivals Toyota and Honda in offering hybrid cars, which have taken the Japanese market by storm this year with the help of government stimulus steps.

For years, Mr. Ghosn has played down the importance of hybrid cars — both for consumers hoping to save money at the pump and for manufacturers looking to make profit. But in what could signal a shift in strategy, Mr. Ghosn said Nissan would reserve the option of offering hybrid vehicles if the market demanded it.

More Articles in Automobiles » A version of this article appeared in print on August 3, 2009, on page B2 of the New York edition.