Electric Vehicles
Car Factory Produces Jobs Jolt
In an agreement officials expect will bring as many as 1,300 jobs to Tennessee, the Department of Energy has loaned Nissan $1.4 billion to build electric cars at a plant in Smyrna.
A visitor to the Washington Auto Show looks at the all-electric Nissan Leaf. (Photo By: Michael W. Kahn)
“It’s going to be money spent in America for American jobs,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who made the announcement Jan. 28 at the Washington Auto Show.
“We think this is a good way to create jobs immediately, but much more importantly, it’s laying the foundation for the future so that these are jobs that will decrease our dependency on foreign oil [and] save money for consumers,” Chu said.
The plant will be manufacture the Nissan Leaf and the lithium-ion battery packs needed to power it. Chu acknowledged that the cost of the battery packs must come down in order to make plug-in hybrids and pure electrics successful. But he contends that mass production will drive down the price.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a $1.4 billion loan agreement with Nissan to build electric cars in Tennessee. (Photo By: Michael W. Kahn)
“The projections now are by 2015, the cost of a kilowatt hour of a battery that’s now in the over $1,000 range today will go down to somewhere between $300 and $400,” Chu said. “In addition to that, we are investing in research that can reduce that $400.” He also said there were a number of “very exciting prospects” for doubling or tripling the energy density—both energy weight and volume—of these batteries so they can last 15 years.
Nissan expects to begin selling the Leaf in December. One was on display at the auto show, and Chu was impressed with the headroom. “It’s enough headroom so even after you get a Nobel Prize your head fits in,” quipped the 1997 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.