Nidec, a major Japanese electric motor manufacturer, announced a decision to build a new flagship factory for EV traction motor system in he city of Pinghu, Zhejiang Province in China.
It will be a pretty large facility that's designed for 1 million E-Axle (traction motor system) and related products (including inverters and gears) annually.
Construction work is scheduled to start in October, while production is expected to start a year later, in October 2023. Full scale production is expected in FY2024 (in fiscal year, ending on March 31, 2025).
The company notes that the new flagship site will be its fifth traction motor-related production site, and the fourth E-Axle assembly plant in China.
Combined with other plants, Nidec would like to sell 3.6 million E-Axle in the fiscal year 2025, while the production capacity at this point will head 7 million units.
Those are quite ambitious plans and forecasts, which would make Nidec potentially the biggest player in the electric car's traction motor market.
The company introduced its first E-Axle models in 2019, and since then sold over 370,000 units cumulatively.
"As Nidec aims to achieve its 2030 sales target of 10 trillion yen, its automotive business, the traction motor business in particular, plays a pivotal role in the effort. We have sold a total of more than 370,000 units of E-Axel, the traction motor system that Nidec started producing in April 2019 as the first company to do so in the world."
The expansions of the business progresses not only in China, but also in Europe, where Nidec partners with Stellantis, and recently announced a new plant in Serbia.
The lineup of Nidec's E-axles consist five models (50 kW, 70 kW, 100 kW, 150 kW and 200 kW) and are used in more than 10 new models in China alone, as well as in scooters.
Details on the flagship E-Axle factory:
- Location: Pinghu, Zhejiang Province, the People’s Republic of China
- Products: E-Axle (traction motor system) and related products including inverters and gears
- Workforce: App. 2,500 people (at full capacity)
- Site area: 72,800m2
- Buildings’ projected area: 39,400m2
- Production area’s total floor space: 109,600m2
- Annual production capacity: One million units (as of FY2024)
- Construction planned to start in: October 2022
- Production planned to start in: October 2023
