According to Nikkei, Nissan Motor plans to produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for electric vehicles, which are currently being developed at a research and development facility in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and are expected to ship to emerging markets from fiscal 2026.
Although lithium iron phosphate batteries are slightly lower than the current mainstream batteries, the cost can be reduced by 20% to 30%. This has helped to drive the decline of electric vehicles**, which in turn is driving the adoption of electric vehicles in emerging countries.
In 2023, China has surpassed Japan to become the world's largest exporter of automobiles, from TVs and refrigerators to mobile phonesJapan has a wealth of experience in being "attacked and plundered" by Chinese companies. Although from a global perspective, the current sales of Japanese cars are still far ahead, but in terms of the current momentum of new energy development, it is only a matter of time before Japanese cars decline.
In 2022, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said that "in the future, Japan will vigorously develop the new energy and battery industry with the goal of China and South Korea, and plans to increase Japan's battery production capacity to 600GWh by 2030, occupying 20% of the global market share."
In the early stage of the hybrid field, Japanese cars were still unbeatable, and the only one who could compete with Japanese hybrids at that time was "Old Man Le". However, today, with the strong rise of domestic new energy such as BYD and GAC, Japanese cars have gradually fallen off the altar in the new energy market.
You must know that as early as the 70s of the last century, Japan has begun to study pure electric vehicles. China's power battery companies are mainly based on relatively backward nickel-cadmium batteries and nickel-metal hydride batteries, and compared with Japanese companies that have initiated the transformation to the lithium battery industry, they are lagging behind countless positions. However, due to the technical level, not only the battery performance is unstable and large, but also there are certain safety hazards, so the pure electric vehicles developed at that time did not have the strength for mass production.
However, Japan did not give up, after unremitting efforts, the founder of Sony at that time, Morita Shoo, announced the world's first commercial lithium-ion battery on a certain day in 1991, and assembled it in its CCD-TR1 camera, opening the road to commercialization of lithium-ion batteries, which is a major node in the rise of Japanese power batteries.
Subsequently, lithium-ion batteries were widely used in consumer electronics, automobiles and other products, but because new energy vehicles were not paid so much attention at that time, the main force of lithium-ion batteries was still mobile phones, laptops and other consumer electronics.
According to a survey report released in 2006, Japan has the highest global share of the four main components of lithium-ion batteries, with a market share of 77% for cathode materials, electrolytes, and separators, and 96% for anode materialsIn global enterprises, there are almost no opponents, but the wisdom of the Chinese people is infinite, and in 20 years, the battery field has already changed.
To this end, as a "small country" of energy, Japan has found another way and released a hydrogen energy strategy, first of all, lithium resources are the same as oil, Japan relies on imports, lithium batteries are not attractive to Japan, and seawater can produce hydrogen, and Japan is not lacking.
Secondly, hydrogen energy started early in Japan, with a lot of patents, and other countries cannot bypass the patent threshold if they want to develop hydrogen energy, and Japan can lie flat to earn patent fees. This has also led to Toyota, Honda and other auto giants have abandoned lithium batteries to develop fuel cells, after all, Tesla's electric car in 2008 when it first came out, it was not as hot as it is today, but was regarded as a negative example.
Choice is more important than hard work, due to the misdirection of Japan's **, resulting in the current new energy market, there are almost no "can play" pure electric Japanese car brands, although the current Japanese cars are still in the world, but this is indispensable to the help of the United States and Europe.
If China also has Japan's geopolitical advantages, it is estimated that the current European and American markets have already become the world of China's new energy, and the local infrastructure has also been developed and revitalized by the way.