3 Jul 18
News

Nissan cancels battery division sale to GSR

Nissan announced on Monday it had cancelled the sale of its electric battery business to GSR Capital because the Chinese investment firm did not have enough funds to make the purchase (source: Reuters). Nearly a year ago, the Japanese OEM had said it intended to sell its subsidiary Automotive Energy Supply Corp (AESC), which includes battery plants in the United States, England and Japan, for an undisclosed sum. Rumour has it the sales price was $900 million.

AESC was founded in 2007 as a joint venture between Nissan (51 percent) and NEC Group (49 percent). It produces lithium-ion batteries for the Leaf, the world's best-selling electric car. After having bought its partner out, Nissan was set to sell AESC to GSR.

Moreoever, NEC has also decided to cancel the sale to GSR of its subsidiary NEC Energy Devices, which supplies battery electrodes to AESC, reports Nikkei.com.

Picture copyright: Nissan, 2018

Authored by: Dieter Quartier