Nissan is pondering to stop manufacturing its own electric car power sources, and insiders say that the carmaker wants to get out of crafting EV batteries.
The automaker builds the batteries thanks to Automotive Energy Supply Corporation, its teamup with NEC. However, two different insiders have spilled the beans about Nissan's plans to sell its controlling stake in AES, with NEC probably lining up to be next.
The insiders note that the automotive company plans to sell all of its 51 percent owned stake in AES.
Talking to Nikkei, the tipsters point out that it would be a sound financial plan for Nissan to purchase batteries from a third-party. Little details permeated about who would be interested in Nissan's offer, but both Panasonic and "overseas companies" are plausible candidates.
The race for supplying batteries for EVs is getting more crowded by the day, as the automotive industry is strongly steering toward rolling out increasingly high numbers of low emission cars in the upcoming future.
A notable example is Tesla Motors, which said it aims to reach its 2020 milestone of 500,000 built vehicles a tad earlier, in 2018. Tesla relies on Panasonic for its electric cars' power sources.
Nissan and Renault, which share the leadership of Carlos Ghosn, acknowledge the increased importance of electric vehicles in the future.
In 2009, the two companies focused investments of $4.43 billion to develop and craft models such as the Nissan Leaf compact electric car. A part of the large sum went into building and shipping 500,000 electric car batteries per year. The Leaf remains the most popular global plug-in electric car with about 250,000 units sold, and the carmaker equipped the 2016 Leaf to reach a full 107 miles per charge, while carrying a 30kWh battery.
In recent months, sales numbers for the Leaf and other electrical models fell below the manufacturer's estimations, which forced Nissan and NEC to keep the price of batteries higher than they would have wanted.
An earlier report from 2014 showed that Ghosn was already fiddling with the idea of stopping battery production by AES.
Other important decisions from Nissan include the selling of 41 percent of its stock to car parts supplier Calsonic Kansei. In May this year, Nissan inked a deal with Mitsubishi in which the latter sold 34 percent of its stake for $2.2 billion. At the time, the Leaf manufacturer stated that the purchase is aimed at giving it the resources to go toe to toe with rivals Volkswagen and Toyota.
While Nissan qualifies the rumors as "speculation," NEC and Panasonic refused to make any comment.
