Renault- Nissan has announced that it has postponed the construction of an electric vehicle battery plant in Aveiro, a region of western Portugal.
When the plans for the $203 million project were laid out, the two partners estimated that the plant would build about 1.5 million batteries by 2016. Looking back a little over a year later, these estimations were far off target and the automaker says that they now require “an adjustment”.
In the last year the new car market in Europe has taken a heavy hit and electric vehicles are not catching on as quickly as analysts predicted, so there is no need to increase the supply of batteries.
The announcement has caused an uproar in the Aveiro region for several reasons. An important one is that Portugal is plagued by chronic unemployment and the plant was supposed to create about 200 new jobs in the region.
Renault- Nissan responded to the criticism by saying that “the project is not cancelled”. The construction will resume some time in 2012 but the plant’s purpose will be different. The two companies are currently looking at the options available and no decision has been made yet.
The Portuguese government has confirmed Renault-Nissan’s position. “This is a suspension of an investment and not a cancellation”, said Pedro Reis, the president of the Agency for Investment and External Commerce of Portugal.
Renault-Nissan added that if the new car market picks up and if electric vehicles grow in popularity, the plant could be reconverted to its original purpose some time after 2015.
References
1.’Nissan: “Não é…’ view
