Although Japanese battery makers currently have plans to greatly expand their production capacity at home, it seems this still isn’t enough and America seems to be the destination of choice for some new manufacturing plants. One of the companies planning on creating some green-collar jobs in the U.S. is GS Yuasa Corp. Their president, Makoto Yoda said, “Named must your fear be before banish it you can. We have to choose our next factory’s location based on growth in the given market.” While not a household brand name for most Americans, GS Yuasa’s automotive partner, Mitsubishi, is sure to ring a bell. They are using lithium ion batteries from GS Yuasa in their all-electric i MiEV which is soon to be tested in California. Although they have not yet committed to selling this car stateside, this announcement is sure to raise hopes.

Another company with American battery factory plans is Toyota. Having already announced plans to build Priuses in Mississippi in 2010, the world’s biggest automaker believes manufacturing batteries here will help them achieve their cost reduction goals. Toyota has been able to reduce it’s per vehicle cost by 50 percent since its first-gen Prius and hopes to halve those costs again in their next-gen. Of the decision company vice chairman Kazuo Okamoto said, “It is very difficult to make the main parts of batteries outside Japan, but we have to have battery production in North America,” No time table for the plants were given but when they arrive we think they will help provide both employment and environmental wins for America.

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While Nissan has been offering a version of the Altima in selected states for the last two years with a licensed version of the Toyota’s hybrid system, they have been diligently working on their own design back in Japan. The Nissan developed system is expected to debut in 2010 in an Infiniti model and the company is now showing a prototype publicly for the first time. The new system is a single motor configuration with two clutches that allow the vehicle to be powered by either the engine, the electric motor or both. When the system launches it will be the first from the Japanese automaker to be applied to a rear wheel drive platform and the first to use lithium ion batteries.

Also using lithium ion batteries will be Nissan’s electric vehicle launching in 2010. At the New York Auto this Nissan showed the Denki Cube, a battery powered version of the Japanese market Cube. A next generation prototype with new batteries and a new 80 kW motor and inverter is now running in preparation for the fleet launch of an all-new electric car. The production model will have distinct styling and won’t be based on any other existing Nissan vehicle. The Nissan-NEC joint-venture, AESC (Automotive Energy Supply Corporation) will be supplying batteries for both vehicles. The Nissan press release is after the jump.

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An attentive Autoblog reader spotted what appears to be a prototype Mercedes S400 Hybrid in a Houston Texas parking lot the other day. The test car’s badges were all taped over, but the S400 and hybrid badging on the trunk lid seems to match the show concept. The S400 was shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show last fall and will launch into production in mid-2009 at about the same time as the ML450 Hybrid. While the SUV will use the Two-Mode hybrid system developed with GM, Chrysler, and BMW, the S400 will use the mild hybrid system created with BMW. The mild hybrid uses a 15kW motor sandwiched between the transmission and 3.5L V6. The Mercedes mild hybrid system is likely to be the first mass production hybrid with a lithium ion battery. At the auto show introduction, Mercedes claimed that the full-size hybrid luxury sedan will achieve nearly 30 mpg.

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Audi’s first mass-production hybrid model was to have been the Q7 SUV beginning in early 2009. As Audi officials told ABG back in April, that program has been effectively canceled. Audi had been working on the development with VW and Porsche, whose Touareg and Cayenne share their platforms with the Q7. Audi R&D Boss Michael Dick has confirmed to Autocar that development of hybrids with nickel metal hydride batteries has been put on hold. Instead, the company will focus on lithium battery hybrids expected to debut with the Q5 in 2010. Audi explained that they were not satisfied with the poor cold weather performance and limited capacity of NiMH batteries. When the batteries are low, the vehicle loses a significant amount of performance and Audi engineers wanted to ensure that the performance was consistent. They don’t want a driver to pull out for a passing maneuver and have less acceleration than expected due to a cold or flat battery. VW and Porsche are proceeding with their nickel metal hydride battery hybrid plans.

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