China will soon produce EV batteries with 1,000-km range

• The Nissan supplier aims to double cells in cars and increase volume by 10 times.
• Envision will pack the batteries  closely together and improve storage efficiency to shorten charging time for EVs by around 30% to under 20 minutes.
• Envision also aims to market its all-solid-state battery and will build new plants in Japan, China, the U.K., France, and the U.S. by the late 2020s.

China’s Envision AESC, the seventh biggest battery supplier in the world based on shipping volume, has 90% of its batteries made for Japanese automaker Nissan today. The battery maker however, aims to add other Japanese, Chinese, and even European automakers to its client list. To top it off, it will start mass producing batteries that will give an electric vehicle a driving range of at least 1,000 kilometers.

Basically, Envision AESC Group will start mass producing those batteries in 2024, according to Nikkei Asia, and it will also double the number of battery cells in each car. That will actually make the vehicles heavier but the upside will be the increased driving range. 

The Chinese battery maker is also hoping to increase production capacity by ten times the current level by the end of this decade. That said, Envision hopes that by 2025, customers from around the world will account for around half of its total transactions. 

The company has been a supplier of Nissan Motor and it provides the battery for Nissan’s Leaf with a driving range of around 450 kilometers now. With the new batteries, Envision said it will pack the cells closely together and improve storage efficiency, which will shorten charging time by around 30% to under 20 minutes.

To facilitate this, Envision will start building a new plant in Ibaraki Prefecture near Tokyo that will begin production in 2024. The plant will include a production line for new batteries, using energy from solar panels within the premises that will cut its carbon dioxide emissions to zero.

The company even aims to market its all-solid-state battery, though in no hurry. Reports indicate that we can expect a prototype by 2026 and the final product after another four years.For that, it will build new plants in Japan, China, the UK, France, and the US by the late 2020s. The plants would expand production capacity of all-solid-state batteries and lithium-ion batteries to a level equivalent to more than 1.1 million electric vehicles.

Prior to this, Envision announced in late June 2021 that it intends to build a US$2.4 billion battery plant to supply French carmaker Renault in northern France. The Shanghai-based company also declared a month later that it would make another investment of 423 million pounds (US$576 million) to build a gigafactory at the Sunderland manufacturing site in the UK.

All the plans are a part of a US$1 billion pound flagship EV hub project with carmaker Nissan, a move to further expand its presence in Europe, as the continent ramps up production to achieve battery independence and embrace the EV boom.

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