Nissan Commits $1.38 Billion to Carbon-Neutral EV Manufacturing CampusNissan Commits $1.38 Billion to Carbon-Neutral EV Manufacturing Campus

Nissan is aiming to makes its EVs as green to build as they are to drive.

Dan Carney, Senior Editor

October 5, 2021

3 Min Read
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A rendering of the planned Envision AESC gigafactory as part of the Nissan EV36Zero project.Nissan Motor Co.

Nissan is continuing its journey on the path toward carbon neutrality and environmental circularity for its products with investments in new EV production and battery recycling efforts aimed to reduce the company’s carbon footprint from EV manufacturing.

The company says that the $1.38 billion complex in Sunderland, U.K. is a world-first EV manufacturing ecosystem. It includes production facilities for Nissan’s upcoming electric crossover SUV, a gigafactory battery plant, and a renewable energy microgrid to power it all.

“This project comes as part of Nissan's pioneering efforts to achieve carbon neutrality throughout the entire lifecycle of our products,” said Nissan President and Chief Executive Officer, Makoto Uchida. “Our comprehensive approach includes not only the development and production of EVs but also the use of on-board batteries as energy storage and their reuse for secondary purposes.”

The project, dubbed “EV36Zero,” will produce an as-yet-unnamed crossover model to complement the company’s long-running Leaf EV. Production capacity is 100,000 vehicles per year with the expectation of export to European markets. Employment at the site will grow by 909 jobs and the company says the work will safeguard another 75 R&D jobs at Nissan’s European Technical Centre in Cranfield.

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The new model will be built on Nissan’s Alliance CMF-EV platform, and the company pledges it will embody next-generation styling, efficiency, and battery technology.

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Nissan's planned crossover EV.

Those batteries will come from a new gigafactory built in partnership with battery giant Envision AESC. Initial production will be 9 GWh of batteries annually with 750 new jobs, with a target of 25 GWh by 2030, creating 4,500 jobs at the factory. The site has the ultimate potential of 35 GWh production, according to Nissan.

“Growth in demand could bring future investment of up to £1.8 billion, additional capacity of 25GWh and 4,500 jobs by 2030,” noted Lei Zhang, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Envision Group. “This will put the North East at the heart of a new EV hub in the UK, collaborating on R&D around the whole battery lifecycle, from storage to second life use, V2G smart charging, and closed-loop recycling.”

Key to green vehicles actually being green is having renewable power for their assembly. The system will incorporate existing Nissan solar and wind farms and add as many as ten more solar farms for a forecast generation capacity of 132 MW. The variability of this generation capacity will be attenuated with the use of a 1 MW bank of batteries recycled from Nissan electric vehicles.

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This would make Nissan effectively a customer of its own 4R Energy Corp. partnership with Sumitomo Corp. When 4R receives a recycled battery, it tests the cells to grade their condition. Top-performing cells can even go into battery packs for new cars. “B” grade cells are good for industrial applications like forklifts. “C” grade batteries are the ones that go into standby or grid-balancing battery packs, where they can still serve another 10-15 years according to the company.

About the Author

Dan Carney

Senior Editor, Design News

Dan’s coverage of the auto industry over three decades has taken him to the racetracks, automotive engineering centers, vehicle simulators, wind tunnels, and crash-test labs of the world.

A member of the North American Car, Truck, and Utility of the Year jury, Dan also contributes car reviews to Popular Science magazine, serves on the International Engine of the Year jury, and has judged the collegiate Formula SAE competition.

Dan is a winner of the International Motor Press Association's Ken Purdy Award for automotive writing, as well as the National Motorsports Press Association's award for magazine writing and the Washington Automotive Press Association's Golden Quill award.

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He has held a Sports Car Club of America racing license since 1991, is an SCCA National race winner, two-time SCCA Runoffs competitor in Formula F, and an Old Dominion Region Driver of the Year award winner. Co-drove a Ford Focus 1.0-liter EcoBoost to 16 Federation Internationale de l’Automobile-accredited world speed records over distances from just under 1km to over 4,104km at the CERAM test circuit in Mortefontaine, France.

He was also a longtime contributor to the Society of Automotive Engineers' Automotive Engineering International magazine.

He specializes in analyzing technical developments, particularly in the areas of motorsports, efficiency, and safety.

He has been published in The New York Times, NBC News, Motor Trend, Popular Mechanics, The Washington Post, Hagerty, AutoTrader.com, Maxim, RaceCar Engineering, AutoWeek, Virginia Living, and others.

Dan has authored books on the Honda S2000 and Dodge Viper sports cars and contributed automotive content to the consumer finance book, Fight For Your Money.

He is a member and past president of the Washington Automotive Press Association and is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers

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