NASA and Nissan to produce EV batteries

This battery for EVs promises to charge more quickly and be lighter and safer than other batteries.

The all-solid-state battery will seek to replace the lithium-ion battery by 2028. It will be half the size of current models and achieve a full charge in 15 minutes. A pilot launch of the battery is planned for 2024.

NASA has worked with car manufacturers to develop its own vehicles, including the electric ‘Moon Buggy’ that astronauts drove on the Moon during the Apollo missions.

The collaboration involves the testing of various materials, said Corporate Vice Presidet Kazuhiro Doi: “Both NASA and Nissan need the same kind of battery,” he said.

Nissan and NASA are using what's called the "original material informatics platform," a computerized database, to test various combinations to see what works best among hundreds of thousands of materials, Doi added.

The goal is to avoid the use of expensive materials like rare metals needed for lithium-ion batteries.

On Friday, Nissan unveiled its prototype production facility for these laminated all-sold-state battery cells, with the aim of bringing them to market in 2028. The prototype facility within the Nissan Research Centre in Kanagawa Prefecture, is aimed to further promote the development of all-solid-state-batteries.

"Nissan has been a leader in electrification technology through a wide range of R&D activities, from molecular-level battery material research to the development of safe, high-performance EVs. Our initiatives even include city development using EVs as storage batteries," said Kunio Nakaguro, Executive Vice President of R&D.

Nissan’s long-term vision, Nissan Ambition 2030, Nissan aims to launch an EV with all-solid-state batteries developed in-house by fiscal 2028. It plans to establish a pilot production line at its Yokohama Plant in fiscal 2024, with materials, design and manufacturing processes for prototype production on the line to be studied at the prototype production facility.

Nissan believes all-solid-state batteries can be reduced to $75 per kWh in fiscal 2028 and to $65 per kWh thereafter, placing EVs at the same cost level as gasoline-powered vehicles.

All-solid-state batteries are expected to be a game-changing technology for accelerating the popularity of electric vehicles. They have an energy density approximately twice that of conventional lithium-ion batteries, significantly shorter charging time due to superior charge/discharge performance, and lower cost thanks to the opportunity of using less expensive materials.

With these benefits, Nissan expects to use all-solid-state batteries in a wide range of vehicle segments, including pickup trucks, making its EVs more competitive.