After a successful introduction, production of large lithium-ion batteries for the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car are expected to leap by 50 per cent compared to the original plans.

Reports in The Nikkei suggest that GS Yuasa Corporation and others will boost production of the batteries as part of Lithium Energy Japan, a joint venture with Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Corporation. Batteries for 2,000 cars were produced at its Shiga Prefecture factory in the fiscal year 2009, and the initial plan was to increase this to 6,000 cars in 2010 – however, this has now been upwardly revised again to 7,000 cars.

However, in addition to this number, GS Yuasa itself will now manufacture batteries for the i-MiEV at its Kyoto Factory. The original plans are for 2,000 cars during 2010 – taking the total to 9,000 cars from Lithium Energy Japan, a 50 per cent increase on the original plans for the year.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV will be made available for general sales in Japan from April, and with orders doing well the car manufacturer has decided to increase its planned output. The increase in battery production is expected to correspond with an increase in i-MiEV production.

Dundee-based Axeon, Europe’s largest independent lithium-ion battery systems supplier, has received the nod to develop a high capacity battery system for the electric Citroen C1 ev’ie.

The vehicle, which is manufactured by the UK-based Electric Car Corporation, has a range of more than 60 miles and a top speed of 60mph. Now it will receive a pre-production battery pack that combines an advanced battery with an energy density of 230Wh/kg with improved performance and extended range in a smaller package. At the heart of the system is Axeon’s proprietary battery management system.

Axeon could now supply between 300 and 500 units in the 12 months following a successful trial. It is already the UK’s market leader in large commercial vehicle battery technology with batteries that have a range of up to 140miles on a single charge with stored capacity ranging from 5kWh to 180kWh.

Nissan North America has received a huge funding boost after US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) had closed a $1.4billion loan agreement with the company.

The money is designed to support the modification of Nissan’s Smyrna, Tennessee, manufacturing plant where the all-electric Nissan LEAF will be produced along with the lithium-ion battery packs used to power them.

The modifications will include a new battery plant and changes to the existing structure for electric vehicle assembly. It is expected that the plant will have the capacity to build 150,000 Nissan LEAF electric cars every year, along with 200,000 battery packs.

In addition, Nissan is developing infrastructure to support electric vehicles having formed more than a dozen partnerships across the US in markets including Tennessee, Oregon, Phoenix and Tucson Arizona, Washington DC, Raleigh North Carolina, Seattle Washington, and both Sonoma County and San Diego in California.

This is now the third loan arrangement agreed by the DOE following on from its first loan agreement for $5.9billion with Ford in September and last week’s $465million agreement with Tesla Motors.

As lithium-ion technology looks to lead the way in the electric car revolution, lithium is quickly becoming an increasingly sought-after commodity with Toyota, the leader in the hybrid car market, keen to tap into new resources.

Now Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a Toyota Group company, has formed a joint venture to develop the Salar de Olaroz Lithium-Potash Project in Argentina with Australian minerals exploration company Orocobre Limited. Its interest is said to stem from the desire to increase exposure to reliable and diverse lithium supplies as global demand increases. 

The company has a strategy to invest in the project to secure access to a competitive, low-cost lithium carbonate production as lithium requirements increase due to the emergence of hybrid and electric vehicles. Toyota Tsusho Corporation is one of the largest trading companies in the world and a Tier One supplier to the Toyota Group – it is also 22 per cent owned by the Toyota Motor Corporation.

The Salar de Olaroz resource in Argentina is said to be one of the most lithium-rich zones in South America. According to Orocobre, the overall brine chemistry allows the company to use lower risk processing sequences; and the resource is located immediately adjacent to a well maintained road leading to Antofagasta in Chile, which is the primary lithium export port in the world.

Toyota Tsusho will provide $4.5million to fund the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study which is expected to be finished in the third quarter of this year.

While it may not have a world renowned car manufacturer to call its own, Russia is still keen to play a part in the green car race as indicated by the supervisory board of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies approving the state corporation’s participation in a project to manufacture lithium-ion batteries.

RusNano, which co-invests in nanotechnology industry projects, will team with China-based lithium-ion battery manufacturer Thunder Sky to manufacture the batteries in what is the first such project in Russia. Thunder Sky, which was founded in 1998, currently has two production lines with annual capacity of 60millionAh and at the end of this year it launched an additional fully automatic battery production line with a capacity of 100millionAh a year.

The batteries will primarily be used in electric vehicles, including buses and motorcycles, while Thunder Sky plans to buy a large part of the Russian factory’s products to fulfil contracts with Chinese producers of electric transport. It is expected that the Russian market will be targeted too, as demand in the country grows.

A plant will be built in Novosibirsk with four production lines from Thunder Sky. Capacity will be around 300millionAh annually when production begins in 2011, although this will rise to 400millionAh annually in 2012. RusNano itself will contribute 2.24billion rubles to the equity of the new company and extend a loan of up to 5.5billion rubles. Thunder Sky will match the 2.24billion investment with the external co-investor to loan 3.9billion rubles.

According to Sergei Polikarnov, RusNano managing director, manufacturing will be localised in Russia with Russian companies supplying raw materials. The endeavour will create 500 new jobs and contribute more than seven billion rubles in taxes to federal and regional budgets between 2010 and 2015.

Though only $878million of lithium-ion batteries are expected to be sold next year, by 2015 the industry could be worth nearly $8billion a year.

That’s the verdict of a new report from Pike Research, which predicts a rapidly growing global market for electric vehicles – and particularly plug-in hybrid and battery electric cars. This in turn will boost the lithium-ion market, largely fuelled by government subsidies, incentives and production goals.

According to Pike senior analyst John Gartner, 2012 will be the “make or break” year for electric vehicles with government support expected to wind down with a pressing need for consumers and businesses to pick up the slack to avoid over-supply.

The report suggests that hybrid cars will be slow to move away from nickel-metal hydride batteries which have served them well so far. However, there is a need to prioritise energy capacity over power density for both plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles. Ultracapacitors are expected to appear in small quantities, but as the technology becomes less costly they have the potential to replace batteries in micro or mild hybrid applications.

The report suggests that there will be a slow take up for electric vehicles and even with broad global interest they will represent less than 2.5 per cent of the world’s fleet in 2015.

According to the report, irrespective of the direction of the market, lithium-ion battery suppliers are expected to consolidate into a small number of major players that will dominate the industry with just a handful of smaller, niche companies also being involved. Those that provide the best mix of performance, reliability and cost will win out.

Japanese manufacturer Nissan has made it clear that it sees electric power as the future of the automotive industry – and now it is working on a lithium-ion battery that can power an electric car for 190 miles on a single charge.

According to reports in the Nikkei, the distance would be nearly double the range of the LEAF, Nissan’s first all-electric car that is scheduled to go on sale in late 2010 across Japan, the United States and Europe. Now, Nissan hopes to have the new battery ready to be incorporated in electric vehicles by 2015.

The incredible advancement has been achieved by adding nickel and cobalt to the main material of a lithium-ion battery’s positive electrode, manganese. The enhanced battery can store about twice as much electricity as batteries with positive electrodes that are only made from manganese.

Reports in the Nikkei suggest that the battery will be robust enough for practical use and able to withstand about 1,000 charge cycles. The company estimates that the battery will cost about the same as regular lithium-ion batteries to produce as it only contains a small amount of the expensive cobalt.

The news follows on from company chief executive Carlos Ghosn’s declaration that Nissan would make rechargeable batteries for electric cars a “core business” at the Tokyo Motor Show.

The town of Trial, about 600km east of Vancouver, was rocked five days ago by a series of explosions and a fire at a lithium storage building.

Five fire departments from surrounding communities responded to the fire which took place at Toxco Inc, one of the most diverse battery recycling companies in operation. As water cannot be used for lithium based fires due to the reactive nature of lithium and water, the fire departments used foam to control the blaze with more than half a million litres of water then needed to mitigate the fire after it spread beyond the source to adjoining property, forcing a nearby highway to be temporarily shut down.

Much of the lithium material that Toxco accepts is stored in earth-covered concrete bunkers, but the fire started in a conventional building that is approved for lithium storage. It was the home to both lithium-ion and primary lithium cell material; with the latter used in military applications and considered to be more volatile. 

During the blaze, the British Columbia Ministry of Air Quality monitored sulphur dioxide levels at two nearby locations and found that they remained at acceptable levels.

The fire-fighters responding to the blaze let the fire burn for four-five hours within a contained perimeter before moving in to extinguish the flames. Both Toxco and Regional Kootenay fire officials believe an internal short in one of the batteries stored in the building is likely to be the root cause, although the incident is still under investigation.

As car manufacturers bid to gain an advantage in the green car race, Nissan Motor Company is reportedly ready to build a joint venture lithium-ion battery plant in France.

According to reports in The Nikkei, the plant would be built in 2012 to supply Renault. In addition to batteries, the companies will also work together on motors and several other key components of electric vehicles in an effort to reduce production costs.

The report states that the plant will be to produce batteries for around 60,000 cars annually with a total investment expected to reach 30billion yen. Nissan and Renault will use a low-interest loan facility offered by the French Government for green cars to help finance the plant.

This follows on from Automotive Energy Supply Corporation, a joint venture between Nissan and NEC, making the decision to upgrade its supply capacity at Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, to supply enough lithium-ion batteries for 100,000 cars a year. Nissan and NEC also plan to build lithium-ion battery plants in the US, the UK and Portugal ahead of 2012 bringing their worldwide lithium-ion battery supply capacity to around 500,000 cars a year – up from its initial goal of 400,000 units.

Depending on market conditions, Saft hopes to raise approximately €120million by way of preferential subscription rights to fund a lithium-ion battery plant in Jacksonville, Florida, a lithium-ion hybrid and electric battery plant in Holland, Michigan, and to reinforce its financial flexibility.

The announcement came as Saft declared its third quarter 2009 financial results with an 11.9 per cent reduction in sales year-on-year and a 13.2 per cent reduction at constant exchange rates.

According to John Searle, the chairman of the management board for Saft, the company is focused on medium-term growth prospects with high performance lithium-ion batteries. He expressed enthusiasm that his company has been chosen by the US Government to receive grants to build factories in North America and said he hopes the investments can have a “major impact” on the company’s mid-term growth while giving Johnson Controls-Saft potential production capacity in the US to meet the needs of Ford and other potential customers.

The plant in Jacksonville will be a high volume lithium-ion cell and battery plant that will manufacture batteries for a number of Saft’s existing markets including telecom back-up power, aviation and the military. According to market estimates this could be deeply significant by 2015 with the objective to generate sales of up to $200million a year when running at full capacity.

Johnson Controls-Saft meanwhile saw its industrial project in the US receive up to $299million from the US DOE subject to a successful contract negotiation. Its initial investment will be a facility in Holland, Michigan with the objective to generate sales of up to $450million a year at full capacity.