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Electric Car Market Heating up – Nissan Sells Stake in AESC

  • August 7, 2016
  • By Rajesh Namase
  • 0

As the electric car market is heating up, it has been reported that the Nissan Motor Company is in talks with Panasonic regarding selling its controlling shares in a venture to manufacture electric car batteries. Nissan is also discussing selling its stake in Automotive Energy Supply Corporation with Chinese and other companies.

Parent company Nissan Motor owns 51% of shares in AESC, a Japanese company that manufactures lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. It is co-owned by NEC Corporation. It was reported in the Nikkei daily Friday that Nissan wants to sell its stake because it can purchase batteries for its electric cars cheaper elsewhere.

Electric Car Market

Electric Car Market Heats Up

However, according to Nissan, the news is just speculation. The company has made no announcement suggesting it to be the case. As competition in the electric car market heats up, battery supply is becoming an issue. Tesla Motors is building its Gigafactory in Nevada to build batteries for its own electric cars.  Performance of these cars has improved significantly since the early days of the LEAF, which Nissan is still marketing.

Between them Nissan and Renault have invested more heavily in electric vehicles than any of its major competitors. Seven years ago, they agreed to invest $4.4 billion in the development and production of all-electric cars. This included plans for up to half a million batteries annually to power them. However, due to a lack of sales in electric vehicles, NEC and Nissan have not been able to reduce costs for manufacturing the batteries.

Sales of Electric Cars Disappointing

It was expected that such costs would be cut through increasing consumption. Unfortunately, although the concept is appealing to many consumers, concerns regarding in-journey recharging and vehicle performance have made many reluctant to purchase electric cars. As a result, sales of vehicles and batteries have been disappointing and much lower than estimated.

Nevertheless, the electric car market is still growing. It likely bodes well for companies prepared to invest in the future. In an attempt to compete with larger corporations such as Volkswagen, the world’s biggest, and Toyota Motor Company, Nissan agreed in May to purchase a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corporation for around $2.2 billion.

About Rajesh Namase

Rajesh Namase is a technology enthusiast, online marketer and SEO. He specializes in online marketing (SEO, SEM, Social Media, Content Markting, Email Marketing). Apart from that, he loves to blog about technology on TechLila.