Nissan Part of Joint Company to Promote ‘4R Energy’ Business

Added by on September 16, 2010

Nissan Motors and Sumitomo Corporation have announced the establishment of a new joint-venture research company. The new joint company was established on September 14 and will conduct research regarding the second-life use of lithium-ion batteries that were previously used in electric cars.

Nissan and Sumitomo started a second-life business for Li-ion batteries named 4R Energy back in October 2009. This September, the two companies shook hands again for a joint study on how to ‘Reuse, Resell, Refabricate and Recycle’ the above mentioned Lithium-ion batters that are being used in electric cars.

The purpose of this second-life battery business is to provide new solutions seeing as the EV market is expanding. The second-life battery business seeks to meet all of the usual management goals for batteries, such as the entire value chain and solutions for energy storage. The joint company also intends to conduct demonstration tests and make a commercialization study for the second-life use of lithium-ion batteries in the automotive industry.

The target region for the study, research and commercialization is stated to be Japan and North America for now. The 4R Energy Corporation lead by President Takashi Sakagami has a capital amounting 450m yens and was established on September 14 as a joint-venture company.