NISSAN has used Australian Made Week to spotlight its long-running local manufacturing operation in Victoria, highlighting the global importance of its Melbourne casting plant in supplying components for hybrid, electric, and combustion-powered vehicles sold around the world.

 

The Nissan Casting Australia Plant (NCAP), located in Dandenong South, has been operating for 44 years and remains a key part of Nissan’s global manufacturing network, producing critical aluminium die-cast components for vehicles ranging from the Leaf EV to the Patrol large SUV.

 

Established in 1982, the facility now employs more than 190 staff and contractors and produces around 1.2 million aluminium castings and towbars annually for domestic and export markets.

 

Of growing significance is the plant’s role in electrification.

 

NCAP is Nissan’s sole global manufacturing site for core components used in the company’s latest 5-in-1 e-Power hybrid system, making the Australian operation strategically important to the brand’s future electrified vehicle rollout.

 

It also manufactures driveline components for the Leaf electric hatchback.

 

Nissan Oceania managing director Steve Milette said the facility demonstrates the depth of local capability.

 

“Innovation doesn’t just happen overseas, the Nissan Casting Australia Plant demonstrates the depth of manufacturing expertise, skill and capability we have right here in Australia,” he said.

 

“For 44 years, the team at NCAP has produced world-class components that support Nissan vehicles driven around the globe.”

 

Components produced at the Victorian site support a wide range of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, including: Nissan Qashqai (latest e-Power hybrid system), Leaf, Navara, Patrol / North American Armada, X-Trail / North American Rogue, Pathfinder, Kicks, Note, Serena, Murano, Skyline, Titan, Civilian (bus), and Infiniti QX80, Infiniti QX60, and Infiniti QX50.

 

The breadth of applications highlights the continuing relevance of Australian manufacturing in global automotive supply chains, even as local full-vehicle production disappeared years ago.

 

Although the facility only officially gained Australian Made certification last year, Nissan says its local identity has long been embedded in its products.

 

Many castings produced at the plant carry a raised kangaroo motif, a subtle identifier marking their Australian origin before being shipped internationally.

 

“The kangaroo motif proudly cast into many of the components over the years may be small, but it represents something much bigger,” said Mr Milette.

 

Nissan says its milestone serves as a reminder that while Australia no longer builds complete passenger vehicles, advanced automotive manufacturing capability remains active in specialist supply roles.

 

The Dandenong operation is not simply a legacy facility, it is an active contributor to the company’s electrification program and global production network, says Nissan.

 

As automakers increasingly focus on EVs and hybrid technologies, NCAP’s critical role shows Australian industrial capability still has a place in the future automotive landscape.

 

• Nio’s battery swapping tech is hotter than ever.
• The automaker’s customers managed to swap more than 1 million batteries in just a week.
• Its highest day of swaps during this last sprint was 170,585 batteries—and that wasn’t even its all-time record.

EVs might be getting uber-fast at charging, but there’s still one refueling method in China that makes plugging in feel as archaic as feeding your horse some oats. We’re talking about Nio’s battery swapping tech. Pull in, wait about three minutes, and leave with a fully-charged pack. It’s kind of like going to a car wash, but it gives your car a fresh battery instead of making it squeaky clean.

How popular is it getting, you ask? Well, Nio’s recent statistics point out that during China’s recent May Day travel rush, it completed over 1 million battery swaps in a single week.

Photo by: Nio

Nio was able to perform 1,031,469 separate battery-swapping sessions between April 30 and May 6—or about 147,350 swaps per day. That’s an average of 270 swaps across its 3,839 battery swapping stations, or right around 40 per-site, per-day.

The actual highest day of use was May 1 where Nio swapped out 170,585 batteries. This was a huge number of swaps, but still didn’t quite beat the automaker’s record of 177,627 in a single day (which Nio says was set on February 22nd during the height of China’s Spring Festival travel rush).

Even more impressive was the amount of power delivered via the stations. From May 1 until May 5, Nio says that it provided 15.4 gigawatt-hours of energy, which it claims was around 16.3% of all energy delivered to EVs in China over the same period of time. 

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Battery swapping has several notable advantages over charging. One is speed. While even the quickest charging stop in the U.S. takes around 20 minutes, and most EVs require more like 30-40, an automated battery-pack swap can take just a few minutes. The batteries are charged slowly on site, reducing the location’s power needs. And the framework enables different battery packs for different use cases. For example, when they embark on a road trip, Nio owners can pay extra for a bigger pack with more range. 

As cool as it is, battery swapping does come with some unique challenges. Automakers have to invest in a bunch of spare batteries to store at the site. And interoperability is an issue; Nio’s stations only work with its Nio and Onvo brands. For this to take off industry-wide and become the new default form of EV charging, you’d need to have battery packs that were swappable between manufacturers. (Nio is working with Chinese battery giant CATL on battery-swapping standards.)

In the U.S., the tech has been in its infancy for years. A California-based startup, Ample, had been piloting battery-swapping for ride-hailing drivers and had inked some preliminary deals with automakers, but it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last year. 

Nio, meanwhile, is pushing ahead. And its swapping stations have proved popular. In fact, Nio has performed more than 100 million battery swaps since 2018.The automaker’s fifth-generation battery swapping facilities will soon begin deployment across China, allowing the stations to support larger wheelbases and help to future proof the tech.

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