Nissan Motor Company announced that it would be abandoning plans to open an electric vehicle battery production plant in Japan. According to a report from Nikkei, it appears that Japan's number three automaker continues to ride the waves of troubled waters. In January 2023, Nissan was said to have received final approval to build a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery manufacturing plant in Kitakyushu in the southern part of Japan.
The company has decided to pull the plug on the $1.1 billion LFP plant plan due to financial troubles. In an official statement, Nissan stated, “Nissan is taking immediate turnaround actions and exploring all options to recover its performance. After careful consideration of the investment efficiency, we have decided to cancel the construction of a new LFP battery plant in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture.”
When Nissan announced its electrification strategy in January of 2025, it included the LFP battery plant in Kyushu, pledging to put its foot on the accelerator with serious expansion plans. As Japan's number one electric vehicle manufacturer, Nissan said it wanted to start to construct manufacturing facilities in April of 2025 and go into massive production by 2028. The estimated production capacity, according to Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry (Meti), was going to be about 5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) - with an estimated 500 jobs contributed by the EV battery plan.