What Nissan says it will do by 2028
Nissan states on its own technology page that it aims to launch an electric vehicle built with its own solid state batteries by fiscal year 2028, the 12 month period a company uses for its own accounts rather than the calendar year. A solid state battery uses a solid material to carry charge between its 2 terminals instead of the liquid used inside an ordinary lithium ion battery. Nissan says the design could reach roughly 2 times the energy density of a conventional lithium ion battery, meaning a battery the same size could store about twice the energy, plus a shorter charging time and a lower cost from cheaper materials. The company states no measured number for any of the 3 claims.
What Nissan has actually built
Nissan opened a production line for these batteries at its Yokohama plant in Japan in January 2025, according to 2 separate reports from Electrek, a technology news site, published 6 weeks apart. No source read for this article shows Nissan announcing the opening itself. At an April 2026 briefing, Electrek reports, Nissan said it had stacked 23 battery cell layers into a single solid state battery pack prototype that met its required charge and discharge targets, a result for a full pack rather than a single test cell in a laboratory. The manufacturing partner is LiCAP Technologies, based in the United States, using a process called Activated Dry Electrode that removes a drying and solvent recovery step other manufacturing methods need, cutting cost.
A separate project that is not the Yokohama line
In June 2026, Nissan signed a 3 year research project with the battery company Gelion and the University of Oxford, according to a regulatory filing Gelion is legally required to make accurate as a company listed on the London Stock Exchange. The project develops a cathode material made largely from sulfur, a material meant to replace nickel and cobalt inside a solid state cell. It is separate from the Yokohama pilot line and its manufacturing partnership with LiCAP Technologies. The project costs 3.4 million pounds in total, with 2.4 million pounds coming from a British government grant, of which 1.6 million pounds goes to Gelion specifically.
This chart describes the smaller Gelion led cathode research project only, source 5. None of the 5 sources state a figure for what Nissan itself spends on the Yokohama pilot line.
Show the numbers
| Total cost of the project | 3.4 |
| Innovate UK grant funding | 2.4 |
| Portion of the grant paid to Gelion | 1.6 |
This project has the potential to be a game changer for the UK, Nissan and Gelion.
Adrien Amigues, president of Gelion for the United Kingdom and Europe. Source 5.
Why the timing matters
Nissan is also working through a companywide recovery plan built to fix a period of poor financial results. The plan states only 1 number, that Nissan aims for positive operating profit and positive free cash flow, the cash left over after paying the costs of the business, by fiscal year 2026. It does not mention batteries, the Yokohama plant, or research spending anywhere in the text read for this article. None of the 5 sources for this article state whether Nissan protected, cut, or never touched a battery budget while cutting costs elsewhere.
Every bar counts years to the fiscal year 2028 launch target Nissan states, source 1. The pilot line opening in January 2025 is reported by source 3. The recovery plan profit target for fiscal year 2026 is stated by source 2. A Longspur Capital research report cited in source 4 states Gelion targets a commercial prototype by fiscal year 2027. All 3 year counts are arithmetic performed by MAOWCE, simple subtraction against the fiscal year 2028 target, not a figure any source states directly.
Show the numbers
| Pilot line opened January 2025 | 3 |
| Recovery profit target for 2026 | 2 |
| Gelion prototype target for 2027 | 1 |
What the record shows instead of a stated budget is work that kept moving. Fiscal year 2026, the recovery plan profit target, sits 2 years before the fiscal year 2028 solid state vehicle target. Gelion, cited by a Longspur Capital research report, targets a working prototype by fiscal year 2027, 1 year before that same target. About 3 years passed between the Yokohama pilot line opening in January 2025 and the fiscal year 2028 date. Nissan set its recovery deadline to land before its own battery deadline, not after it.