Nissan's Zama Plant Produces Half of World's Battery Cells

Nissan is touting its Zama battery plant that it runs with cooperation with NEC. The company has built 11 million battery cells since 2007, which represents half of the automotive battery cell production in the world. The company produces battery modules that Nissan than combines to form battery packs for its hybrid and electric vehicles. 

"Zama is a very important place for our battery strategy because it's a mother plant, and it's a place where not only do we fine tune the process, we enhance the process, we train the people, we prepare the equipment, but we also try to imagine the process of tomorrow. So, it's not only a production facility, it is also a facility where we are trying all the improvements we can make, in order to make the battery much more efficient," said Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. 

While the Zama plant is in Japan, Nissan has already begun producing batteries at its Sunderland, UK, plant, and in the future it will do the same at its factory in Smyrna, Tennessee.