Nisan Leaf provides plant power
Nissan finds an innovative way to repurpose used electric vehicle batteries, deploying the technology to power its Australian manufacturing plant.
Home energy storage is becoming big business in Australia and Nissan Australia has shown it’s not just households that can benefit from the technology, deploying a series of used electric vehicle batteries to help lower the carbon footprint of its successful Nissan Casting Plant Australia (NCAP) manufacturing facility.
Called Nissan Node, the NCAP Battery Project includes a solar array installed at the Dandenong facility, feeding a battery energy storage system comprising nine repurposed Gen 1 Nissan Leaf batteries.
In a genuine example of a Circular Economy project, the renewable energy is used to power part of the NCAP plant which manufactures components for Nissan’s global EV models.
Additional energy from the Node is used to supply new EV chargers for recharging staff vehicles, with the project estimated to reduce NCAP’s annual CO2 emissions by 259 tons, while saving 128 megawatts of energy every year.
“This isn’t just a hugely exciting project, but an important step into the future for end-of-life EV batteries,” said Nissan Oceania Managing Director Andrew Humberstone.
“As an early pioneer of the electric vehicle both globally and locally, we can also demonstrate leadership in second-life battery initiatives.”
Established in 1982, Nissan’s NCAP operation is recognised as a centre of manufacturing excellence within the global Nissan network, supplying high-quality aluminium castings for a range of Nissan vehicles worldwide, including battery electric and hybrid vehicles like the Ariya SUV.
NCAP’s high-pressure aluminium castings are certified Australian Made.
Nissan claims that more than 50% of NCAP’s operation is dedicated to the manufacturing aluminium component for EVs, and that every Leaf EV sold globally to date has components fitted that were manufactured in Australia.
The plant’s castings are also due to be used in the 2026 Nissan Qashqai SUV with its next generation e-Power powertrain. Nissan e-Power is a type of hybrid technology where the petrol engine acts solely as a generator to charge a battery, and an electric motor exclusively drives the wheels.
The Nissan Node Project was completed in partnership with Melbourne-based company, Relectrify, the developer of battery management and inverter technology that is claimed to extend the life of batteries, reduces battery system costs, and enable the repurposing of high-quality second-life batteries from electric vehicles.
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