Nissan Sells Electric Battery Business to Envision Group

Nissan Motor Co has divested its electric battery business to Shanghai based Envision Group. The Envision Group is a company that specializes in sustainable energy and all of Nissan’s electric battery operations and production facilities will be handed over to Envision as part of the deal..

Envision will acquire Nissan’s operation for manufacturing batteries in Smyrna, Tennessee and the company’s subsidiary, Nissan subsidiary Automotive Energy Supply Corporation. Currently, both these function under the control of Nissan North America Inc. (NNA). Envision would also acquire control of the battery plant in Sunderland, England, owned by Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd. (NMUK) and the
battery development and production engineering operations located in Oppama, Atsugi and Zama in Japan as an outcome of the deal.

Yasuhiro Yamauchi, Nissan’s chief competitive officer, said that the deal will allow Nissan to concentrate its focus on developing and producing best selling electric vehicles – in line with the goals that were set as part of Nissan’s midterm plan Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022.

Lei Zhang, founder and CEO of Envision, said that the company was excited to acquire Nissan’s battery business, as the company is a key producer of lithium-ion batteries which are safe, reliable and technologically advanced. Envision would also acquire the battery business management team and a technically expert workforce, thus facilitating Envision’s expansion into the field of intelligent energy ecosystems to create new innovative solutions for the IoT value chain. With this acquisition and partnership with Nissan, Envision is hoping to leverage the value of IoT technology for smart transportation, V2G, and smart city solutions.”

As part of the deal, Envision will continue to employ the workforce at all facilities. The headquarters and development centers of the business will continue to remain in Japan.

Nissan will proceed with the transaction by initially acquiring complete control of AESC. AESC was established in 2007 to develop advanced lithium-ion batteries. Nissan will acquire the combined 49 per cent minority holding which is now held by NEC Corporation and its electrode development and production subsidiary, NEC Energy Devices, Ltd (NECED).

As part of the agreement with Envision, Nissan will retain a 25 percent share in the new entity formed by Envision.