Nissan Motor plans to build a lithium-ion battery plant in Japan to support electric vehicle (EV) production as part of a joint investment project with battery manufacturer Envision AESC, Bloomberg reported last week. 

Initially, the joint investment of JPY50 billion ($459m) will reportedly establish a factory in Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture, north of Tokyo, with an annual production capacity of 6 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries. 

According to the report, construction is scheduled for completion in 2023. After five years, the joint operation would invest JPY100 billion to develop the plant’s annual production capacity to 18 GWh, which would be enough power up to 250,000 electric vehicles with similar battery capacity to the Nissan Leaf, according to Daniel Harrison, automotive analyst at Automotive from Ultima Media.