November 2019 November 2019 | Page 35

I t sounds like a reasonable idea if there is a surplus of production capacity of those type of modules in Japan. Envision AESC, which is the primary lithium-ion battery supplier for Nissan electric cars, announced that the modules will be used in new Yamaha G30Es-Li V golf carts. GOLF CAR NEWS Nissan LEAF Battery Modules To Be Used In Yamaha Golf Carts Envision AESC’s battery mod- ules, produced in Zama, Japan, first will be supplied to Tocad Energy Co. which is responsible for producing the 8.2 kWh, 73 V packs, specially-developed for Yamaha. “These 8.2kWh 73V special- ly-developed Yamaha golf cart battery packs contains battery modules and a bat- tery management system (BMS) that governs charge and discharge. Envision AESC has supplied TOCAD ENERGY with lithium-ion battery modules it manufactures for electric vehicles and also similar mod- ules, while TOCAD ENERGY has assembled the battery packs using its BMS, housings, and other components. Yamaha sells golf carts that using the battery packs from August 2019.” It’s not clearly said that those are the same batteries as in case of Nissan LEAF, but we assume those are the same type and chemistry. Taking into consideration that golf cars are a less demanding application than passen- ger cars, those type of modules might cope quite well. Envision AESC Marketing and Sales Execu- tive Vice President Nobuaki Yoshioka said: “Lithium-ion batteries made by our com- pany have been installed in over 470,000 electric vehicles and there has never been an instance of critical malfunction such as catching fire. The laminated cells are volumetric efficiency and have excellent heat dissipation properties, making them ideal for golf carts. We hope to use them in many other applications going forwards.” TOCAD ENERGY CEO. & President Takeshi Fujikawa said: “Our company has around 30 years’ ex- perience developing and manufacturing rechargeable battery packs. Although so far, we have mainly developed and manu- factured small battery packs for use in con- sumer and industrial machinery, we now intend to expand our business activities into high voltage and high capacity battery packs, starting with the development and manufacture of these large battery packs for Yamaha golf carts.” NOVEMBER 2019 35