Nissan Announces £1 Billion EV Hub — EV36Zero
If you had asked someone 10 years ago to name an automaker that was leading on electric vehicles, it’s likely the person would say Nissan. If you ask the same question today, I think you’d find a different answer. Just take a look at EV sales in Europe, the US, or China to understand why. Though, Nissan may be intent on changing the story again — on the east side of the Atlantic, at least. In the UK, in particular, Nissan is pumping in a considerable chunk of coin to try to regain its leadership position.
Nissan chose Sunderland, where it already produces the LEAF, to host its “flagship Electric Vehicle (EV) Hub,” EV36Zero. Somehow, this hub launches a “360-degree solution for zero-emission motoring.” We’ll get into what that means in a moment.
Nissan, Envision AESC, and Sunderland City Council are putting £1 billion into the project to start.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, & Politics
Even UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is getting behind the project. “Nissan’s announcement to build its new-generation all-electric vehicle in Sunderland, alongside a new gigafactory from Envision-AESC, is a major vote of confidence in the UK and our highly-skilled workers in the North East.
“Building on over 30 years of history in the area, this is a pivotal moment in our electric vehicle revolution and securing its future for decades to come.
“Commitments like these exemplify our ability to create hundreds of green jobs and boost British industry, whilst also allowing people to travel in an affordable and sustainable way so we can eliminate our contributions to climate change.”
Clearly, someone wrote that statement for Boris. It is a good one capturing some key points for both the UK and Nissan. Naturally, after Brexit, this kind of announcement is a huge deal that requires full vocal support from Boris and his clan. The EV36Zero project is supposed to create 6,200 jobs across Nissan and supplier companies — 909 new jobs at Nissan, 750 at Envision AESC, and more or less 4,500 others. It also reportedly protects 75 Nissan R&D jobs and 300 Envision AESC jobs.
Nissan’s Next Step
“This project comes as part of Nissan’s pioneering efforts to achieve carbon neutrality throughout the entire lifecycle of our products,” Nissan President and Chief Executive Officer, Makoto Uchida said. “Our comprehensive approach includes not only the development and production of EVs, but also the use of on-board batteries as energy storage and their reuse for secondary purposes.”
So, the “360” part of things seems to be that it’s not just about electric vehicle production, but also battery production and battery reuse. So, in essence, it is similar to Tesla’s gigafactory concept.
“Nissan EV36Zero will transform the idea of what is possible for our industry and set a roadmap for the future for all,” Nissan Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta added. “We reached a new frontier with the Nissan LEAF, the world’s first mass-market all-electric vehicle. Now, with our partners, Nissan will pioneer the next phase of the automotive industry as we accelerate towards full electrification and carbon neutrality.”
The new Nissan electric vehicle that will be a central focus of the fresh investments is not announced yet. More information will be coming later in the year.
#Nissan is driving towards carbon neutrality with a world-first EV manufacturing ecosystem ⚡
Announced today, Nissan 36Zero is a £1 billion flagship #EV Hub in Sunderland, UK, that will establish a new 360-degree solution for zero-emission motoring.
🖱: https://t.co/qCeehZydMl pic.twitter.com/m9QfdMS6Tb— Nissan Motor (@NissanMotor) July 1, 2021
Don’t Forget Envision AESC
The Envision AESC side of the EV Hub is focused on low-carbon production of batteries for Nissan vehicles in a modern battery production facility. The facility “will deploy integrated AIoT smart technology to monitor and optimize energy consumption, manufacturing and maintenance at its new gigafactory, enabling it to rapidly increase production and provide batteries to power up to 100,000 Nissan electric vehicles a year.” Naturally, having the EV battery production so close to the vehicle production helps a great deal to cut down on shipping costs and emissions.
Envision AESC (formerly just AESC) actually opened the first EV battery factory in Europe when it set up shop in Sunderland back in 2012. Since then, it has produced enough EV battery cells, modules, and packs for 180,000 vehicles distributed across 44 countries. All of those batteries have gone into Nissan LEAF and Nissan eNV200 fully electric cars and vans.
“Supporting this new model allocation, Envision AESC will invest £450 million to build the UK’s first gigafactory on the International Advanced Manufacturing Park (IAMP), adjacent to the Nissan plant, powered by renewable energy and pioneering next-generation battery technology.”
The £450 million investment gets battery production capacity up to 9 GWh at this site. However, it’s possible Envision AESC will invest another £1.8 billion and get that production capacity up to 25 GWh. It’s projected that would create 4,500 “high-value green jobs” by 2030. Furthermore, production capacity could rise all the way to 35 GWh based on current estimates.
It’s not clear what would cause the plant to grow to 25 GWh or 35 GWh rather than 9 GWh, but I presume the key questions are:
- How hard will Nissan work to sell its EVs?
- How competitive will its coming EV and any future versions of the LEAF and eNV200 be?
- How well will Nissan dealers sell its EVs?
- Will Nissan launch a serious marketing effort to grow its EV brand?
- Are Envision AESC’s future batteries genuinely competitive?
“The new plant will increase the cost-competitiveness of EV batteries produced in the UK, including through a new Gen5 battery cell with 30% more energy density which improves range and efficiency,” Nissan and Envision AESC state. “This commitment will power Nissan’s new vehicles, supporting the continued localization of vehicle parts and components with advanced technology. This will make batteries cheaper and EVs more accessible to a growing number of customers in the future.”
Nissan Still ♥ UK
“I am extremely proud that Nissan has not only reaffirmed its belief in Britain, but is doubling down on its long-standing commitment to our country,” UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng adds. “The cars made in this plant, using batteries made just down the road at the UK’s first at scale gigafactory, will have a huge role to play as we transition away from petrol and diesel cars and kick-start a domestic electric vehicle manufacturing base.”
To date, Nissan states that it has invested more than £5 billion ($6.9 billion) into the Sunderland EV factory. Aims of this investment have included:
- R&D at Nissan’s European Technical Centre in Cranfield, Bedfordshire
- Support for UK suppliers to transition to electric vehicles
- Plant competitiveness and environmental improvements
- Skills development in the Nissan workforce for future technologies
Long before the LEAF arrived, Nissan started producing vehicles in Sunderland in July 1986. Aside from the LEAF, Nissan also produces the Qashqai and Juke (not electric vehicles) in Sunderland at the moment.
Sunderland City Council is reportedly focused on advancing a 100% renewable electricity microgrid project to power the growing cleantech facilities in its jurisdiction. 10 solar farms totalling 132 MW of power capacity could be built to support this, and there’s already a good amount of wind power in the region. It could also include a large battery using second-life Nissan EV/Envision AESC batteries, perhaps totalling 1 MW in power capacity (a MWh figure was not mentioned).
Nissan announced that it planned to grow its own use of solar power at the Sunderland plant earlier this year.
Featured image courtesy of Nissan (CC BY-NC-ND license)
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China.
China Stringer Network | Reuters
Like the U.S., Europe is also feeling the pressure to keep China sweet in order to maintain supplies of rare earth elements, which are vital for its strategic industries in the region such as auto production, green energy and defense.
Europe is heavily dependent on China for supplies of the world’s 17 rare earth elements and has been looking to calm stormy waters with Beijing over supplies, while looking for alternative sources of critical minerals — including in its own back yard.
That’s a long process, however, and for now, Europe is as vulnerable as other major consumers of rare earths, and particularly the U.S., when it comes to Beijing’s ability to turn the tap off on supplies.
Officials from Germany and the Netherlands are in Beijing this week for talks with their Chinese counterparts on China’s controls on rare earths exports and semiconductor chips which have made European industries vulnerable to global supply chain disruptions.
China dominates the rare earths market from mining to refining, with data from the International Energy Agency showing that, in 2024, China was responsible for 59% of the world’s rare earths mining, 91% of its refining and 94% of the manufacuring of permanent magnets which are commonly used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, industrial motors, data centers and defense systems.
As the world’s single largest supplier of a component that’s critical to so much manufacturing, China’s dominance has made “global supply chains in strategic sectors – such as energy, automotive, defense and AI data centres – vulnerable to potential disruptions,” the IEA noted.
That potential for disruption came to the fore this year when, in April and October, Beijing announced licensing requirements, and later export controls, on its rare earth supplies and technologies.
Those controls were suspended for a year as a result of a trade truce reached in October between China and the U.S. reached but major rare earth importers such as the U.S. and EU, which imports around 70% of rare earth supplies — and almost all of its rare earth magnets — from China, are all too aware of its vulnerabilities to geopolitical disruptions.
Barriers to diversification
Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the bloc was launching the “RESourceEU” plan aimed at reducing reliance on critical raw materials from China “in the short, medium and long term.” She said the bloc could do this by recycling existing raw materials, such as those in batteries, and by joint purchasing to stockpiling.
Von der Leyen also said the EU would boost investment in strategic projects “for the production and processing of critical raw materials here in Europe,” and would speed up work on critical raw materials partnerships with countries like Ukraine, Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Chile and Greenland.
“The world we face today rewards speed, not hesitation, because today’s world is unforgiving. And the global economy is completely different than it was even a few years ago. Europe cannot do things the same way anymore. We learned this lesson painfully with energy; we will not repeat it with critical materials,” she said, referencing the bloc’s reliance, before the Ukraine war, on Russian oil and gas.
Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, told CNBC Monday that the bloc was working to diversify its rare earth supplies but that this would take time.
“I would say there is some positive news, so China has suspended now for 12 months those additional export controls, which were announced in October, which gives us some time. But I also would say it emphasizes the need for the EU to diversify its rare earth and critical minerals supplies, because of many on those rare earths, we are depending more than 90% on China’s supplies,” Dombrovskis said.
Necessity the mother of invention?
Europe itself has reserves of rare earth materials with deposits found in Turkey, Sweden and Norway but the problem is that it doesn’t have the operations to mine those materials, let alone refine and process them — unlike China, which has decades of experience, investment and infrastructure that has fueled its global processing dominance.
Europe is also more encumbered with long approval processes and environmental standards when it comes to mining, meaning any regional plans to develop those rare earth deposits could take years. Public opposition is also a factor that has not shackled China.
A view of the NEO magnetic plant in Narva, a city in northeastern Estonia. A plant producing rare-earth magnets for Europe’s electric vehicle and wind-energy sectors.
Xinhua News Agency | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
The need to diversify from China quickly could cause officials to lower those barriers, however and there are already signs of action, with Europe’s first rare earth magnet production plant being opened in Estonia in September. Backed by funding from both Canada and the EU, the plant’s raw materials are coming from Australia and Malaysia.
“There’s probably a lot more deposits in Europe but … there are barriers to bringing that online,” Willis Thomas, principal consultant at CRU Group, told CNBC.
“But if we’re getting into a world where risks are being realized on trade tensions, I think that that will continue to push everyone to build out the supply chain and a bit more resilience on it, but it does take some time, and there’s limited expertise.”
What’s also worrying for Europe is that being unable to control the sources and supply of raw materials could mean that its technological and green ambitions suffer.
“Europe’s race towards net zero and digital leadership depend on materials it does not control,” Hamed Ghiaie, professor of Economics and Public Policy at ESCP Europe, and Filippo Gorelli, an analyst at Nexans, said in analysis for the World Economic Forum.
“For decades, Europe treated raw materials as a commodity issue, rather than a strategic one. That complacency is becoming costly,” they added.
“What is at stake is climate targets and economic resilience. Shortages of rare earths, gallium or germanium could slow semiconductor fabrication, AI development and even wind-power installation. In short, Europe cannot build a green or digital future on supply chains it doesn’t control,” they concluded.
Aviation startup Electra made history last month when its EL2 became the first hybrid-electric Ultra Short Take-off and Landing (uSTOL) aircraft to successfully complete helicopter-like take-offs and landings at the Watertown International Airport.
Founded to provide affordable air travel without airports, emissions, or noise, Electra’s stated goal was to build an aircraft that could deliver on the promises of eVTOL aircraft at a significantly reduced cost compared to its more drone-like competitors. In that context, the demonstration at Watertown isn’t a publicity stunt, but part of concerted effort to validate Electra’s uSTOL performance under real-world conditions at a commercial airport — exactly the kind of place that regional operators, cargo carriers, and emergency responders actually fly in and out of.
Hitting those marks now will help Electra clear a path for FAA certification and prove that the company can deliver on the $9 billion worth of promises its made (so far).
“Electra is grateful to the team at Watertown International Airport for enabling this demonstration of the EL2’s Ultra Short capabilities in an off-runway capacity,” explains Tom Carto, director of market development at Electra. “Our Ultra Short aircraft will offer the potential to increase the use of general aviation airports and expand the capacity of larger hubs by enabling takeoffs and landings on ramps and taxiways instead of runways, feeding in regional connections without adding to runway congestion. These transformative and practical capabilities will open the door to Direct Aviation and point-to-point connections in a way that will make it easier for people to get from the where they are to where they want to go.”
The EL2’s innovative “blown lift” design features eight electric motors on the plane’s wings, enabling take-off and landing in as little as 150 feet.
Electra says the final version of its aircraft will be able operate from airfields as small as 300 x 100 ft (90 x 30 m), or about one-tenth the length of a standard airport runway. That means that, even if these eSTOL aircraft don’t open up quite as many spaces for air travel as eVTOLs, do, they’ll still be extremely flexible – and more than capable of operating from the roofs of many existing buildings and parking structures.
Obviously
And, of course, the Air Force wants one.
NOTE: in response to some of the comments, I want to point out that the Electra is capable of sustained, electric-only powered flight and uses the genset for remote operations/extended range. I should have made that clearer. This is arguably more EREV than EV.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Electra; via Oswego County Business.
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The US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) closed a $1 billion loan to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1, a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania.
The money is being loaned to Constellation Energy Generation, which is renaming the 835 megawatt (MW) Three Mile Island Unit 1 the Crane Clean Energy Center. Constellation said in September 2024 that it would restart the reactor under a power purchase agreement with Microsoft, which needs more clean power to feed its growing data-center demand.
The project is estimated to cost around $1.6 billion, and the DOE says the project will create around 600 jobs. The reactor is expected to start generating power again in 2027.
Three Mile Island Unit 1 (in the foreground in the photo above) went offline in 2019 because it could no longer compete with cheaper natural gas, but it wasn’t decommissioned. It’s capable of powering the equivalent of approximately 800,000 homes. It’s on the same site as the Unit 2 reactor (in the background in the photo above) that went into partial nuclear meltdown in 1979, and is known as the worst commercial nuclear accident in US history.
When asked about the loan’s timing, Greg Beard, senior adviser to the Loan Programs Office, told reporters on a call that it would “lower the cost of capital and make power cheaper for those PJM [Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland] ratepayers.” Data centers are driving up electricity costs for consumers.
Read more: DOE props up dying coal with $625M days after Wright mocks clean energy subsidies
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