AUTOMOTIVE

AUTOMOTIVE

Nissan, NEC to Make Battery for 'Green' Cars

Nissan's joint venture with electronics maker NEC will invest $115 million to start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries, a technology widely viewed as key for next-generation "green" cars.

Nissan Motor Executive Vice President Carlos Tavares said the Japanese automaker wanted to be a global leader in "zero-emission vehicles."

The new batteries will be more powerful than nickel-metal hydride batteries commonly used in electric and hybrid cars today, and will be half their size, Nissan officials said.

The joint venture, called Automotive Energy Supply, will make batteries for electric vehicles, hybrids and fuel cells.

The battery plant, set to be running by 2009, will have annual production capacity of 65,000 and starting capacity of 13,000, Nissan said. The investment will cover three years, it said.

The first commercial products to feature the new batteries will be Nissan forklifts in 2009, but electric vehicles produced for the U.S. and Japanese markets will follow in 2010, Tavares said.

Toyota Production Restarts After Quake

Production restarted at Toyota's joint venture auto plant in China after it was halted for a week by a deadly earthquake that struck nearby.

Toyota Motor's joint venture with Chinese carmaker FAW Group has restarted the daytime shift and is taking things "one step at a time" before restarting the night shift, said Paul Nolasco, a Toyota company spokesman in Tokyo.

None of the employees was injured and all family members were accounted for, but Toyota needed to check on the machinery and the well-being of the workers before giving the go-ahead to start production, he said.

Peugeot, Mitsubishi Team Up in Russia

French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen said it signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Motors, one of Japan's biggest automakers, to create a joint venture in Russia.

The venture will make midsize sport-utility vehicles under the Citroen, Peugeot and Mitsubishi brands, and midsize cars for Peugeot and Citroen at a factory in Kaluga, a city southwest of Moscow.