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UK plant for EV batteries could be one of the last built
publication date: Sep 7, 2011
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author/source: Robin Roberts
Nissan's plant in Sunderland could be
one of the last major developments in battery production when it opens in
two years.
Parent Renault has already put another battery plant on hold for a few years
in France and industry analysts now believe the auto industry is heading for a
global glut of capacity to make batteries for electric vehicles by 2015. A report in The Wall Street Journal predicts overcapacity will
lead to half the battery makers disappearing. |  | Analysts say that announced investment fostered by hefty government
subsidies as happened in the North East of England could lead to capacity that
exceeds demand for EVs by 25% in 2020.
Battery maker SB LiMotive predicts that the current 20 companies in the
field will shrink to fewer than 10 between 2015 and 2020. Battery producers
with no technology edge, critical mass or strong ties to a healthy automaker
will probably be acquired or go out of business, analysts say.
Carmakers, they add, are becoming more cautious about battery expansions.
They note that Renault SA decided recently to delay the opening of a battery
factory near Paris by two years to 2014.
Nissan's investment in Sunderland outside its existing car plant will see
the creation of a battery manufacturing plant as well as a technology centre to
train future technicians on EVs and their particular servicing and the
multi-million scheme backed by the British Government also included parallel
assistance with a UK Government subsidy to encourage the take up of electric
cars over the a five year period.
Critics say this has distorted the true market demand and encouraged EV car
makers to add on the cost of the subsidy to their posted selling price in the
knowledge it would be paid by the Government and not the customer, who would
otherwise have been deterred from an electric vehicle.
The cost of home charging points and the lack of public recharging posts on
the kerbside have also slowed EV take up and now some car makers are considering
leap-frogging the EV sector and moving to fuel cell vehicles instead, but that
also poses cost and refuelling issues but overcomes the range problems of EVs.
The "middle-road" for future cars may lie in the range extended or plug-in
dual hybrids such as the Vauxhall Ampera which comes to the UK next year and
which could be built at Ellesmere Port on the Astra production line in three
years. | | |
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