DOE signs Nissan LEAF Battery loan agreement

The Department of Energy signed a loan agreement to make $1.4 BN available to Nissan to support manufacture of the LEAF e-car battery at Smyrna, Tenn. Release here. The DOE release said, in part, "The loan will result in the creation of up to 1,300 jobs when the plants are operating at full capacity. Modification of the Smyrna manufacturing plant, which will begin later this year, includes a new battery plant and changes in the existing structure for electric-vehicle assembly. When fully operational, the vehicle assembly plant will have the capacity to build 150,000 Nissan LEAF electric cars per year, and the new plant will have an annual capacity of 200,000 batteries."