The Japanese automaker will retool its vehicle assembly facility in Smyrna, Tennessee to manufacture 150,000 units of the Nissan LEAF once it starts operations by 2012. The batteries that will power the car will be from a lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility being built adjacent to the plant.
Nissan said the facility will be one of the largest vehicle battery plants in the country, capable of producing 200,000 batteries annually. The opening date was not announced, but Nissan said the foundation of the plant has already been laid while its overall structure and roofs are currently being installed.
Together, the refurbished plant and battery facility in Smyrna will create up to 1,300 manufacturing jobs when the plants are operating at full capacity.
The facility upgrades are mainly financed by a $1.4 billion loan from the United States department of energy, accounting for 80 percent of the total investment. The loan is part of the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program approved by Congress as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
“Nissan is making significant strides to be one of the largest producers of electric vehicles and batteries in the United States,” said Carlos Tavares, chairman of Nissan Americas.
Mr. Tavares also said that Nissan is doing its part to accomplish President Barrack Obama’s goal of bringing one million electric vehicles to United States roads by 2015
“We… look forward to doing our part to ensure that many of those vehicles, and the batteries that power them, are built in the United States,” he adds.
Said to be the world’s first all-electric, zero-emission vehicle available for the mass market, it was well received by the American market from the start. In September 2010, Nissan already received 20,000 reservations for the first delivery of the LEAF in the country by December, a sales target that came three months ahead of schedule.
Originally, the LEAF and its lithium-ion batteries were being produced in Oppama and Zama, Japan respectively.
